Marines to augment anti-crime forces in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – Mixed reactions greeted yesterday’s announcement by the mayor here that a battle-hardened Marine contingent is coming to help the police and the Army’s anti-crime Task Force Tugis stop the wanton attacks by heavily-armed kidnap gangs.

“The Marines are coming. I have talked to their superiors and to President Aquino about the need for us to have them here and now they are coming,” said Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr., in his state-of-the city address yesterday.

More than 70 members of the Chinese community here and in nearby towns in North Cotabato and Maguindanao have been snatched one after another in a spate of unabated kidnappings since the early 1990s.

Guiani, angered by Friday’s bloody kidnapping here of a 73-year-old Chinese businesswoman activated Sunday an inter-agency task force to secure the victim’s release and formulate measures to secure the city from kidnappers.

The victim, whose husband is co-owner of the LCT Hardware, Inc., one of the city’s two biggest hardware stores, was snatched while on her way to her residence at the Dap-Dap district here Friday afternoon.

Her two security escorts, Richard Emberga and retired Marine Sgt. Alvin Doruelo, were both gunned down by another group, armed with assault rifles, while she was being spirited away.

Guiani, chair of the city peace and order council (CPOC), installed himself and Army Col. Ernesto Aradanas, commander of the Army’s 603rd Brigade, as vice chairman and chairman of the task force, respectively.

The abduction of the businesswoman came just about two months after kidnappers snatched from their store at the main commercial district here, another trader, subsequently held him captive for three days at the border of Pigkawayan, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.

He was freed by his captors after his family paid ransom through a courier.

Members of the local business community said they were elated with the mayor’s confirmation that the Marines are coming to help fight kidnappers.

“How I wish that would happen soon, sooner than we expect,” said a 45-year-old Chinese hardware storeowner.

A Muslim peace advocate said he is worried of the implication of any deployment here of a contingent from the Philippine Marine Corps to the ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.