New PNP chief retains NAKTAF

A day after President Arroyo disbanded it, new Phi-lippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. ordered the reactivation of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) under his command.

Ebdane told reporters yesterday he will head the NAKTAF in a concurrent capacity, in the same way that Panfilo Lacson retained command of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) when he took over as PNP chief in November 1999 during the Estrada administration. Lacson is now a senator and

the PAOCTF has been disbanded.

"We need to operate against kidnapping and (illegal) drugs," he said. "The National Anti-Crime Commission had been abolished, it comes with it all the other task forces, including NAKTAF. But my intent is to maintain the NAKTAF with the same name so that there will be no problems on unit identification. I will make this as the lead unit."

Upon Ebdane’s assumption as PNP chief Wednesday, President Arroyo disbanded the NAKTAF and its mother agency, the National Anti-Crime Commission (NACC) to give the police chief a free hand in going after kidnapping gangs nationwide.

When Ebdane headed the original NAKTAF, he reported directly to Justice Secretary Hernando Perez in his capacity as chairman of the NACC.

Ebdane said in retaining the NAKTAF, he has ordered Director Virtus Gil, chief of the Directorate for Personnel and Resource Management, to disband anti-kidnapping task force Dragon under the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and other police units on anti-kidnapping.

"But we intend to do is to develop, at the level of command, the capability for which the commanders themselves will be made responsible...," he said.

"Initially, I will head the NAKTAF in a concurrent capacity in view of some requirements (such as) support, direction, responsibility, and of course the need to accelerate specific undertakings," Ebdane said.

He said he will keep intact NAKTAF’s personnel and organizational setup to make it easier for the PNP to go after kidnap gangs.

"It takes sometime to recruit and train the personnel...," he said. "We want to fast track by having an experienced team leader and some of his men doing the jobs," he said.

Meanwhile, Ebdane said he is waiting for clearance from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before he names trusted officials to key staff positions at PNP headquarters and in regional and provincial commands.

"Everything now depends on the Comelec," he said. "Once the Comelec issues the clearance, then we intend to comply as we don’t want to have a vacuum in the chain of command."

Under the law, any reshufle in the police and military before and during elections must be approved by the Comelec.

Elections for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials will be held on July 15.

Expected to be affected in the revamp are Deputy Director General Edgar Galvante, director for operations; Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, comptroller; and Deputy Director General Rex Piad, chief of the directorial staff.

Galvante and Piad are set to retire this year.

Ebdane said the deputies of top police officials, whom the National Police Commission had earlier relieved from their posts, will take over as officers in charge, pending the appointment of their replacements.

"Each commander has his deputy and there’s a lot of officers who are in the organization who can do the job," he said.

The relieved police officials are: Metro Manila police commander Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, Central Luzon police commander Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, Central Visayas police commander Director Avelino Razon Jr., Manila police director Chief Superintendent Nocolas Pasinos, Laguna police director Senior Superintendent Leonilo dela Cruz, and Cebu police director Senior Superintendent Antonio Salvacion.

Ebdane said he welcomes Mrs. Arroyo’s recommendation for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to help the PNP fight kidnappers and drug traffickers.

Duterte’s crime-fighting role will be discussed in an anti-kidnapping and illegal drugs summit to be held in Camp Crame in Quezon City on Tuesday next week, Ebdane added.

On the other hand, Teresita Ang-See, spokeswoman for the Citizens Action Against Crime (CACC), said yesterday Ebdane must stop kidnapping nationwide before the one-year deadline that he had earlier announced.

"We are impatient," she said. "‘We don’t think we can wait for another year," she told radio station dzBB . "(Kidnappings) should have been stopped earlier."

The CACC, an anti-crime crusade group based in Binondo in Manila, has been monitoring kidnappings nationwide and helping kidnap victims since 1983.

At present, NAKTAF has operating units in Luzon and Mindanao to handle kidnapping cases reported in the various cities and provinces throughout the country.

However, all cases of kidnapping in the provinces must be reported to the NAKTAF headquarters in Camp Crame so any follow-up operation could be coordinated.

NAKTAF personnel are augmented by men from the PNP Special Action Force (SAF), Intelliegence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and other law enforcement agencies.

The NAKTAF headquarters is located at a heavily-guarded building in Camp Crame, which housed the PAOCTF when Lacson was PNP chief. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude