Maguindanao lawmen returning to old posts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Maguindanao policemen who were reassigned to other regions following the massacre of 57 people, mostly journalists, in the province on Nov. 23 last year have started returning to their original areas of assignment.

Some 300 policemen affected by the reassignment have been recalled on orders of the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police, said Senior Superintendent Federico Castro, a senior directorate staffer of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police.

Policemen in Maguindanao were all replaced with operatives from surrounding regions after the massacre due to their perceived loyalty to the Ampatuans, who were implicated in the carnage.

Castro said the policemen now being returned to Maguindanao could be more efficient this time because the big political clans that once ruled the province with intolerance for political opposition are gone.

“I think they will work with us now,” Castro said.

There is talk that the return of the Maguindanao policemen could lead to the lifting of the state of emergency in the province.

Local radio reports have quoted Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu as saying that the return of the policemen should be done on a strict case-to-case basis. “Not all of them can be recalled this early,” he said.

Mangudadatu lost his wife, Jenalyn, and more than a dozen other relatives in the massacre.

He said policemen from the known political strongholds of the Ampatuans in the second district of Maguindanao should be excluded from the recall order. – With Edith Regalado