Tanods to beef up drive vs crime, terror

Following the deadly terrorist bombing in Davao City last week, barangay tanods or neighborhood watchmen will now receive basic law enforcement training to beef up the government’s campaign against crime and terrorism.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr. said tanods can also help the undermanned and poorly equipped Philippine National Police (PNP) provide better security presence.

"They are a potent force to reckon with in terms of extending technical and operations support for our policemen in the campaign against criminality, especially street crime," Lina said. "Hence it’s but appropriate that they are provided with adequate training relative to their work as peace and order frontliners."

Tanods have an advantage over policemen in preventing crime because they usually live in the neighborhood where they patrol and can most likely spot strangers, he added.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government yesterday launched a basic law enforcement training program for the estimated 800,000 barangay tanods across the country.

The training program is also meant to give local government officials the responsibility of maintaining law and order in their jurisdictions, Lina said.

Under the program, tanods will receive crime prevention training in their neighborhoods and mainly be taught how to spot suspicious-looking characters – or in the case of terrorism – look for bombs.

To encourage local governments to do more in crime prevention, the interior department will give awards annually to recognize outstanding achievers.

The Philippines does not have an anti-terrorism law and moves to enact such legislation have been stalled by the definition of terrorism itself.

President Arroyo earlier pushed for such a measure following a terrorist bomb attack at Davao International Airport on March 4.

Twenty-one people – including an American missionary and the bomber – were killed and 150 others were wounded when a bomb went off at a waiting shed outside the airport terminal.

The bombing was the nation’s worst terrorist attack since a wave of bombings in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, killed 22 people and wounded over a hundred.

The Arroyo administration is considering branding the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as a terrorist organization for its alleged involvement in the attack, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

However, the government is hesitant because the move could jeopardize efforts to hold peace talks with the MILF, Reyes said.

Last Monday, Mrs. Arroyo urged the MILF to stop attacks against civilians after an alleged MILF band seized a bus in North Cotabato province and robbed the passengers.

One passenger, a soldier in civilian clothes, was executed after his military ID and service pistol were found on him.

"I don’t want that (terrorist tag on the MILF) to happen. That’s why I’m calling on them to stop these attacks and harassment against civilians because everybody is debating about the very precise definition of terrorism. But the common thread among those conflicting definitions is that the targets are civilians," she said.

Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure "only bolster the argument made by more and more people that the MILF is not a political organization but a terrorist group," Mrs. Arroyo said.

The MILF denied responsibility for the Davao airport bombing and the bus seizure.

Since the fall of one of their enclaves in North Cotabato to the military last month, the MILF have stepped up their retaliatory offensives, raiding towns and military detachments and blasting transmission towers, causing widespread power outages in Mindanao.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines for 25 years.