More cops deployed amid spate of violence in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Philippine National Police deployed 101 more operatives in Cotabato City to help stave off a cycle of violence besetting the local communities.  

Senior Superintendent Rex Anongos, director of the Cotabato City police, said the contingent, which arrived September 17, will help secure crime-prone areas, the city’s commercial districts, markets and public terminals.

The city was rocked by dozens of shooting incidents in the past three months, almost all still unsolved owing to the reluctance of witnesses to help the police prosecute perpetrators.

An influential Catholic broadcast outfit operating in Central Mindanao since the 1950s, the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp. (NDBC) said in a report last week that there were 88 gun attacks in the city from January to August 2015, which resulted to 70 fatalities.

The NDBC, which has six radio stations scattered across Central Mindanao, said 33 people were wounded in shooting incidents during the period.

The local police only have 206 men before the PNP augmented the force last week with 101 more operatives.

Cotabato City has 37 barangays that are being patrolled regularly by combatants of the Army’s elite 5th Special Forces Battalion, helping the local police maintain law and order in the local communities.

More than 300 people have been killed in one attack after another in the past five years by guns-for-hire and participants in Moro clan wars.