Palace: Kidnappings actually decreased

Malacañang sought yesterday to highlight the scoreboard in the government’s war against kidnap-for-ransom syndicates which showed that the administration’s anti-kidnapping campaign has actually reduced crime incidence.

From 100 kidnapping cases in 2001, it actually went down to just 63 cases last year, Deputy Presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo said.

"We were able to bring this down without having to execute anyone and the key factor here is the determined effort of the law enforcement agencies to bring down kidnapping," Saludo pointed out.

He said Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. has been able to neutralize 20 kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) syndicates in 2001, reducing the number to just five last year.

"And the five (KFR syndicates) were inactive until recently, when we had a resurgence of this crime. We are now cracking down against them anew," Saludo said.

However, even President Arroyo herself admitted yesterday that she does not rely on statistics coming from the Philippine National Police (PNP) with regards to kidnapping cases.

Mrs. Arroyo made this candid admission during a press conference held at the Central Luzon State University in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, where she met with local officials and later distributed land titles to urban poor groups.

"The statistics of police on kidnapping, ever since, we cannot rely on that because they say it only reports the number of reported (kidnapping incidents). It may in fact, reflect greater trust because more are reporting," she said.

At the same press conference, Mrs. Arroyo sidestepped questions on the threat of some Filipino-Chinese groups to launch a civil disobedience campaign or boycott classes to dramatize their demand for the government to do something about the resurgence of kidnapping in the country.

"As I said yesterday and even today what’s important is total reforms. We have to have quick enforcement. That’s why we put up checkpoints," the President pointed out.

She commended the police authorities who killed Roberto Yap and three of his KFR gang in a hideout in Bataan last week.

The President later flew to the wake of the slain policeman who was part of the team that raided Yap’s gang on her way back to Manila.

Mrs. Arroyo cited anew her directives to National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf) head Angelo Reyes to deploy all the agencies under him to run after the remaining KFR syndicates.

"We put Secretary Reyes there. We’re going on enforcement now but I really recognize the need for deeper reforms in the police, the military and the courts as long term solutions. That’s what is important," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She likewise sought to put an end to the debate on her refusal to lift the moratorium on the execution of death row convicts following a strong clamor from the public after the kidnap-slay of 32-year-old Coca-Cola executive Betti Chua Sy.

But even before Sy could be laid to rest, a 10-year-old girl, Gelica Dy, was abducted from her car last Friday in Manila while on her way to school. The driver was killed and her nanny was seriously shot by armed men.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker and Iloilo Rep. Raul Gonzalez yesterday scored the opposition for overreacting to the earlier pronouncement of Mrs. Arroyo that the latest crime wave was due to destabilization efforts by her political enemies.

"Why protest too much? Are you guilty?" he asked. "The opposition should not feel being accused if their consciences are clean."

For his part, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said he believes that there is a "a cabal of rogue politicians busily pulling the strings of criminality to create a grim scenario of lawlessness and anarchy in the country."

This, he said, could be the handiwork of influential politicians who are out to take undue advantage of the artificial breakdown of law and order and style themselves as messiahs or harbingers of quick fix solutions to the peace and order problem.

"The aim is to erode business confidence, strike fear into the populace and project the Arroyo administration as weak," he said. — With Paolo Romero