Cotabato cops now have crime-fighting equipment

COTABATO CITY — Long bereft of vehicles and other crime-fighting equipment, the city police now have 10 brand new motorcycles, two speedboats and dozens more of much-needed firearms to fight the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang, which has been taking advantage of the constraints besetting local authorities. The 10 motorcycles, procured by the city government, were turned over yesterday by Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema to the city police, to be used by an elite group of policemen tasked to guard the 37 barangays against kidnapping syndicates.

Sema said the two speedboats, valued at P1.2 million each will soon be delivered to the city by the Manila-based distributor while the firearms will come from the police national headquarters in Camp Crame.

Tension spawned by a recent spate of atrocities in the city has started to wane, but local sectors remain on alert, convinced that security problems here were deliberately created to drive a wedge in the solidarity of the area’s culturally-diverse residents. Members of the religious community said they are certain that a "third party" could be behind the troubles that rocked the city in recent weeks to embarrass Sema, who is the secretary-general of the Moro National Liberation Front.

Sources from the military’s intelligence community said kidnapping syndicates outside of the city could be involved in the seeming destabilization activities in retaliation for the deaths of at least four kidnappers killed by pursuing lawmen led by Sema just hours after the abduction here last January of physician Rosemarie Agustin.

Kidnappers in Central Mindanao, according to an influential datu in Maguindanao, also failed, due to the prompt intercession of Sema, to rake in huge ransoms in exchange for the release of six kidnap victims snatched in different parts of the region from 1990 until last year.

"It is very likely that lawless elements can connive with unscrupulous political quarters to embarrass the city government and maybe, in so doing, succeed in weakening the people’s confidence on the local administration," said a 60-year-old datu, who asked not to be identified.

Barangay officials here have been criticized for their failure to address security problems right in their turf, using as their excuse their lack of firearms to fight criminals. — John Unson