PNP News Releases 2005

PNP REFOCUSES ATTENTION TO ANTI-CRIME AND ANTI-TERROR OPERATIONS

Director General Arturo C Lomibao yesterday said the PNP may now be able to refocus attention on crime prevention and operations against domestic threat groups after a long engagement in civil disturbances and mass actions. The PNP Chief instructed all PNP Regional Directors to pursue with renewed vigor all internal security operations against the local communist movement and other threat groups in the country.

Lomibao sounded the call during a command conference with top police officials in Davao City yesterday.

“Let us sustain the momentum of recent successful operations against the NPA in the hinterlands and in the urban centers where some of them seek refuge,” Lomibao said.

Lomibao was referring to the most recent tactical engagements between government forces and NPA terrorists in different parts of the country where the NPA suffered considerable losses and irreversible setbacks.

Since Monday, the PNP and AFP have inflicted heavy casualties on the NPA in Benguet, Nueva Ecija and in some areas in southeastern Mindanao .

During the conference in Davao City, a seminar on the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) was held with Ms. Paulyn Paredes-Sicam, member of the government negotiating panel for the peace talks with the NDF; and Prof. Carlos Medina Jr., Chairperson of the GRP Monitoring Committee as resource persons.