More Cotabato cops deployed as killings rise

COTABATO City, Philippines – More policemen have been deployed in strategic areas in the city following a rise killings involving hired guns, the city's top cop announced Monday.

Senior Superintendent Rolen Balquin, city police chief, said most of the killings involved residents of nearby towns in Maguindanao province whose families are locked in clan wars.

“Most of the murder cases were triggered by grudges,” Balquin told Catholic station dxMS here Monday morning.

Police records show that at least 300 people have been killed in Cotabato City in the past four years. More than 90 percent of the killings remain unsolved.

In recent weeks, cases of gun attacks suddenly increased. Some of the attacks happened even in broad daylight.

Balquin admitted that the city police's peacekeeping missions are affected by the lack of personnel needed to tightly guard flashpoint areas that are vulnerable to attacks by guns-for-hire.

“[The number] of our policemen [is] not enough and we still lack facilities to address criminalities,” he said.

Balquin said the Philippine Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion has been providing the city police with manpower complement needed to secure the city’s 37 barangays.

Balquin also appealed to local communities, over station dxMS, to help the police protect the city from criminals.

He said their law enforcement activities will not succeed if potential witnesses to crimes won't cooperate with the investigators.