The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the reported pronouncement of the Deputy Director General, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Avelino Razon Jr., that they are shipping a thousand shotguns to arm “selected, screened and trained” police auxiliaries in southern Mindanao. These police auxiliaries include village watchmen and civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs), who have supposedly undergone “rigid screening and training”.
While there is an urgent need to increase security measure to protect civilian communities amidst the fresh rebel attacks, to arm civilians so that they can defend their villages, cannot be a justifiable means of action. Arming civilians and auxiliaries has already been proven historically to be a flawed notion. The notion justifying the arming of civilians to defend and protect themselves is unequivocally illegal and completely absurd.
There is only one police and law enforcement agency and it is the PNP. Law enforcement on matters involving protection of the lives and property of citizens is solely and unconditionally the responsibility of the PNP. It is a non-transferable obligation. By arming civilians, the PNP is abdicating its power to a band of armed men that have no legal authority to enforce the law. It thus reveals the stark and frightening reality that the PNP can no longer perform even its most rudimentary duty; the maintenance of law and order.
It is unthinkable that the country’s police force is sliding back to a dark time in the past when the police and military funded, armed and trained vigilante groups against the communist insurgency in the ’70s and ’80s. The arming of civilian has left a devastating legacy of vigilantism that for decades, particularly the city of Davao, has not been able to recover from. It was in the urban village of Agdao in Davao City where the vicious vigilante group, Alsa Masa, first took root.
Twenty years later, despite the fact that there is no longer the threat of communism vigilante killings take place in Davao City daily on the pretext of the war against criminals. The psyche of the people living there has reached a point where they themselves give ready acquiescence to these death squads to decide on who deserves to die or not effectively leaving the policing, prosecution and the court meaningless. Thus, while Alsa Masa may have ceased to exist the notion and residue of its brutal past remains an insidious disease.
The AHRC is concerned that the arming of civilians is once against being used on pretext of village defense but is actually supporting the PNP in their fight against Muslim insurgents. There are also reports that even locals are supporting auxiliaries by collecting money to support their operations and for firearms. Also, even before the PNP announced that it would ship shotguns for police auxiliaries, the renewed fighting in the municipalities of North Cotabato early this month was also aggravated by armed militias and auxiliaries engaging in encounters with rebel groups.
It is in Mindanao where some of the known brutal vigilante groups used by the security forces against the communist rebels first gained its root. Apart from Alsa Masa, the feared Kuratong Baleleng and the 4Ks of Misamis Occidental, Ilaga (rats), Tadtad (chop chop) and Sagrado Corazon Senor of North Cotabato, amongst others, also emerged. As mentioned earlier, over two decades later, these groups may be gone but the legacy of vigilantism they left behind remains a real threat.
In fact, even before General Razon’s pronounced of the arming of civilians, a vigilante group known for its violent past, Ilaga (rats), had already resurfaced showing off their firearms while its leaders announced that they would fight against the Muslim insurgents on the pretext of protecting civilians — a reminder of the group’s violent past in North Cotabato. The emergence of this group also rekindles the violent past where countless civilians, including women and children, were shot dead and slaughtered with machetes; on the mere suspicion that they were communist sympathiser.
In fact, the subsequent reforms in the PNP have led to the dismantling of the Civilian Home Defence Force (CHDF), a group of civilian armed group which falls under their supervision, due to its abuse, is historical proof that the arming civilians is doomed due to the unwritten license to commit abuses.
The reasons why vigilante groups have continued to undermined law and order is the is the failure of the police’s policies that remain uncorrected. In fact, the police civilian volunteer organization (CVOs) and the army’s Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Units (CAFGU) continue to exist to this day, despite demands to dismantle them, is sufficient evidence of the governments tolerance of vigilantism.
The obvious danger of maintaining these groups is that they would more likely cause harm than good. Furthermore, the PNP and the army have not defined either responsibility or accountability should there be violations, abuses or atrocities committed by “police auxiliaries”. They are not regular police officers governed by existing disciplinary machinery — by the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM), Internal Affairs Service or the People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB) — thus, they cannot be held to account and are beyond the reach of the disciplinary agencies.
Although the criminal and civil provision would still apply in prosecuting those committing abuses, it effectively excuses the State from any illegal actions that armed civilians are committing. And because they are not covered or governed in the existing policies of the police force, should they commit unlawful acts it could not be attributed to the State but merely to an individual or the group. This scenario is effectively giving blanket immunity, not only to the police auxiliary forces, but to the PNP itself.
If regular and trained police officers, who is subject to stringent disciplinary rules and mechanisms still commit abuse, there is high expectation that auxiliaries will do the same. Arming the civilians also is tantamount to dissolving the existing firearms regulations and control which it is already unlawful. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) therefore calls upon the government to recall any measure aimed at arming civilians and to dismantle groups performing police duties without delay.
