LEGAZPI CITY — All police units across the region were placed under heightened alert by the police regional office in Bicol (PRO5) following intelligence reports that four members of the military adventurist group Magdalo were sighted in Camarines Sur to enlist support to destabilize the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
Police Senior Supt. Baligi Agnanayon B. Tira, PRO5 chief, said police intelligence operatives are casing four members of the Magdalo group sighted in Camarines Sur reportedly visiting military and police camps purportedly recruiting police and military personnel for a planned coup de etat.
Tira however refused to release the identities of the four Magdalo members saying that it would hold back the on-going surveillance operations being conducted by PNP intelligence units.
At a press briefing here, Tira said he has directed the entire police units in Bicol to be on double red alert on threats of destablization by leftist and rightist groups who wanted to topple down the duly constituted government.
He said that aside from the Magdalo group, the PNP is closely checking the moves of the New People’s Army and other left-leaning organizations that may likely launch retaliatory attacks and mass action following the arrest of Jose Maria Sison by Dutch authorities in The Netherlands where Sison is in asylum, together with Luis Jalandoni, the chairman of the National Democratic Front (NDF).
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is also closely monitoring supporters of former President Joseph Estrada for moves to launch mass action that might follow the Sandiganbayan verdict on the ousted President Joseph Estrada’s plunder case.
Tira wanted that government forces would not allow these threats to put to waste the gains of the government, saying that the police will continue to uphold the law and defend the duly established government.
“I gave strict instruction to my men to be extra vigilant and be watchful in dealing with these destabilization moves. We are ready to initiate tactical offensive against them (plotters),” P/Senior Supt/ Tira said.
To quell any destabilization effort in Bicol, the PRO5 intensified its intelligence operations. It now strictly enforces the no permit no rally policy, has set-up police checkpoints in strategic areas, and has deployed additional police forces in vital installations such as communication sites, seaports, airports, bus terminals and other places where most of the people usually converge. (MSArguelles, PIA Albay)
