‘Crack down on crime gangs in industrial parks’

Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes has ordered a crackdown on criminal syndicates victimizing businessmen and companies operating in industrial parks in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.

Reyes directed Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao to coordinate with local officials in breaking up syndicates engaged in smuggling, hijacking, extortion and pilferage of goods in the industrial zones.

He said these investors have threatened to pull out of the industrial parks should these criminal activities go unhampered.

Reyes, chief of the National Anti-Crime Task Force (NACTAF), earlier ordered integrated security measures to protect the locators of the industrial zones in the three Southern Luzon provinces.

"The measures (were) primarily intended to improve the business climate in the prime business hub of the country," he told executives of companies operating at the Batangas international port in a meeting last Wednesday.

Batangas officials, led by Gov. Armando Sanchez, and police officers led by Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Varilla, chief of the PNP directorate for intelligence, attended the meeting at the Batangas provincial Capitol.

According to Reyes, criminal syndicates operating in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) area have caused the industrial parks’ locators to lose about P100 million annually.

Reyes said the criminal syndicates have been extorting protection money from these companies, warning that their goods being transported to Metro Manila or elsewhere would be hijacked or pilfered should they not give in.

During the meeting, the Batangas officials vowed to coordinate their efforts in stopping criminal activities in the industrial zones.

Sanchez informed Reyes that his administration is behind the efforts to crack down on criminal syndicates.

The NACTAF has been conducting a nationwide campaign against criminal syndicates, including those engaged in ransom kidnapping and smuggling.

Businessmen have complained to Reyes that one of the most notorious criminal gangs operating in Batangas is led by a certain "King Bee."