Crackdown vs loose guns, private armies intensifies

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Government’s crackdown against loose firearms and private armies in the Cordillera has been ordered at the heels of the police who are faced with a blank wall on the daring ambuscades of two barangay chairmen Saturday in Abra.

Cordillera police director Chief Superintendent George Aliño has ordered Abra police director Senior Superintendent Arturo Quilop to intensify the crackdown on loose guns in Abra.

Aliño said they are eyeing at either personal grudge or political vendetta as the cause of the daylight ambush of Reynaldo Bataller of Barangay Namarabar and Restituto Venusa of Barangay Tattawa, both in Peñarrubia town. Both officials, said to be close to Mayor Antonio Dumes-ag, were waylaid by armed men while they were reportedly bound to attend the "Arya Abra" mardi gras.

"Although we have been doing it (crackdown) before, we will magnify the police watch to clampdown on these," he vowed.

Cordillera police also vowed not to slacken their operations against loose firearms in other provinces in the Cordillera to thwart similar incidents even if it involves some politicians and powers-that-be who maintain "private armies." "Anybody in possession of loose firearms will be arrested."

Reliable sources said that most of the town mayors in Abra maintain private armies to protect them from vendetta killings from their political rivals. Last year, almost 3,000 loose firearms were snared from alleged bodyguards of Abra politicians by the DILG-Task Force Jericho led by Superintendent Orlando Mabutas. — Artemio Dumlao