PAOCTF equipment ordered inventoried for turnover to PNP

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza has ordered the inventory of the multimillion-peso equipment of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), in preparation for turn-over to the police.

Sources said the inventory also includes cases handled, personnel, investigation and intelligence information as well as the equipment.

Shortly after President Arroyo dissolved the PAOCTF, the President tasked Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, PNP deputy chief for administration, to take over the operations of the defunct PAOCTF through the so-called Special Task Force Group.

In an interview, Ebdane admitted receiving a lot of pressure from higher-ups for the dissolution of the special task force, whose personnel, numbering about 130, came from different units of the PNP. They will return to their mother units once the task force is dissolved, he said.

But Ebdane did not want to talk about reports of a power struggle within the PNP among police officials enjoying the support of former President Fidel Ramos and those of former Executive Secretary Renato de Villa. Ebdane is reportedly from the Pangasinan block, the province of Ramos, while Mendoza is of the Batangas block (De Villa).

The Special Task Force was responsible for the capture of about 15 members of the Joel Medraño kidnap-for-ransom group. Ebdane’s men were also responsible for the rescue of 10-year-old James Ryan Yu in Cebu City last month.

PNP officials are still studying if the cases still handled by the task force will be turned over to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). – Christina Mendez