Why do we still have private armies, huh?

We’ve got good news and bad news in our hands. First the good news: the five-day hostage situation in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur where a group of students, teachers and residents were kidnapped by the Ondo Perez gang is over with the hostages released without any incident… where no one was killed in the process. But the bad news is, Ondo Perez and his merry band of kidnappers are nowhere to be found. So we cannot really say that all’s well that end’s well in this hostage-taking crisis because Ondo Perez and his gang have escaped… or was he allowed to escape? Ezzz, a puzzlement! 

As this was the second hostage-taking incident that plague the Aquino administration’s first year in office, I’m sure that the government negotiators were so eager to end this hostage crisis without any incident, less it causes more embarrassment to the Aquino government. This is why a lot of pundits suspect that Ondo Perez was “allowed” to leave. There is no question that kidnapping is a serious crime, hence the PNP had ample time to cordon the hostage area with troops, lest the kidnappers get away.

That the 13 remaining hostages were found to have been left behind and on their own by Ondo Perez, plus the fact that all the kidnappers vanished only leads us to conclude that there was some kind of “arrangement” given to Ondo Perez and his gang. My doubts were further shored up when last Thursday morning, I was watching ANC’s TJ Manotoc’s interview with DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo where he openly sympathized with the plight of the kidnappers. I would have thought that the DILG Secretary would have been fuming mad that the hostage-takers got away?

I was shocked to hear Secretary Robredo say that he completely understood why Ondo Perez (who committed another hostage-taking a few years back) committed his second hostage crisis blaming the police in the previous incident for breaking their promise not to file charges of kidnapping against him. Based on this statement, we can surmise why the PNP once more committed another grave error in not surrounding the area where the hostages were held, when a security cordon around the perimeter should have been standard procedure.

So were Ondo Perez and his gang allowed to leave quietly? Who negotiated this standoff and the release of hostages? Don’t you think that this incident should trigger another congressional investigation? If you ask me, the PNP did right in filing the earlier kidnapping charges against Ondo Perez and hopefully, If he is caught, then I expect the PNP to also file another kidnapping case against him. Let me point out that if we are perceived to be “soft” on kidnappers, then kidnapping will become a profitable industry.

This incident involving Ondo Perez and his gang only reminds us that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has failed to deliver one election promise he made during the campaign, to rid our country of armed groups or private armies. Ondo Perez is neither a member of the communist underground nor a Muslim separatist, hence he falls within the description of a private army, which should have been disarmed a long time ago.

This brings us to another part of troubled Mindanao where Gov. Esmael Magudadatu of Maguindanao blamed the ambush of seven of his relatives to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) although MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied this accusation and blamed the incident on a clan war. Call it a clan war or a separatist incident, but the reality is, 10 months after he assumed the presidency, President has totally failed in dismantling armed groups or private armies in our country.

Take note that during the last presidential election campaign, P-Noy’s media mouthpieces in Cebu blamed presidential candidate former Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. for failing to disarm or dismantle those private armies. For as long as the Aquino administration cannot disarm these armed groups, there will never be peace in our country.

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At least there is still good news coming from the P-Noy administration with the appointment of whistle-blower Heidi Mendoza as commissioner of the Commission on Audit (COA), which brings hope that with Heidi back in COA, she can make reforms in this organization so it can truly be an agency not only to guard against corruption but to stop it right on its tracks. Mind you, the COA in Cebu hasn’t shown any transparency at all. We’ve written volumes of columns on how to improve COA, but Cebu City COA officials don’t even care to respond to our criticisms. They obviously believe that by ignoring a media exposé, these problems would go away. So let’s see what Heidi can do to make COA a paragon of transparency and we pray that COA employees and officials would support Heidi’s advocacy.

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