PACER deploys crack teams vs Mindanao kidnap groups

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday ordered the deployment of its crack anti-kidnapping operatives to hunt down and crush kidnapping groups in Mindanao.

Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, chief of the Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response (PACER), said PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa gave the deployment order following a command conference in Camp Crame.

Nerez said PACER will initially deploy 80 trained counter-kidnapping agents to Zamboanga City where they will establish their base of operation.

With Verzosa’s order, Nerez said they also decided to move PACER Mindanao’s base of operation from Davao City to Zamboanga City.

To augment the deployment of additional operatives, Nerez said PACER is also strengthening its intelligence gathering against kidnapping groups in Mindanao.

“Our operatives are now more vulnerable because we will now be mostly working in rural and jungle situations. That is why we need to beef up our intelligence and add muscle to our forces,” he said.

Nerez admitted that they are facing a formidable task as kidnapping groups in Mindanao are better organized and better armed that their counterparts in Metro Manila, Luzon and the Visayas.

Nerez said PACER agents will be given additional counter-terrorism training as part of their deployment considering that many kidnapping gangs in Mindanao have ties with terrorist groups.

For their new task, Nerez said PACER will draw agents from its Metro Manila and Visayas offices.

Nerez gave assurance though that PACER’s operations in Metro Manila, Luzon and the Visayas will not be affected by the deployment.

“We will be recruiting and training new agents to complement the deployment,” he said.

Verzosa said he personally ordered the deployment of PACER agents to Mindanao following a notable increase in kidnappings there.

“I am tapping the anti-KFR (kidnap-for-ransom) expertise of PACER to help the various security forces in Mindanao neutralize the gangs engaged in KFR activities which have recently increased and have turned deadlier for the victims,” he said in a statement.

Verzosa described as “alarming” the recent beheadings of two kidnap victims whose families had failed to meet the exorbitant ransom being demanded for their release.

Verzosa assured PACER of additional manpower and other related requirements to enhance its operational capability, especially in its offices in key cities in Mindanao.                  – With Cecille Suerte Felipe