MANILA, Philippines - There are still around 40 private armies in the country, a Malacañang official said on Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said this is out of around 80 private armed groups that were around when the Ampatuan massacre was committed in November 23, 2009.
Lacierda said efforts are ongoing to disband private armies. "The private armies now have been reduced," he said in a Palace briefing.
He added that the state of emergency over Maguindanao has not been lifted, citing the "continuous" request of local government officials there.
The top official of a special commission tasked to look into private armies in the country earlier said the Palace has not acted on its recommendations regarding the Ampatuan massacre.
Retired Justice Monina Zeñarosa, whom the commission was named after, told ANC Primetime on Wednesday that they submitted a full report and supplemental findings to then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and current Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa at the beginning of Aquino's term.
"They have always been promising to go over it," she said. "Haven't heard from them."
Commission recommendations
Among the commission's general recommendations are:
- creation of a permanent task force against private armies;
- crafting of a law imposing stricter penalties on those who have private armies; and,
- abolition of a policy granting amnesty to people who own unregistered and illegal firearms.
Retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, a member of the Zeñarosa Commission, said they came out with a comprehensive analysis on private armed groups, including "the socio-cultural causes that give way to the creation of private armies, the motivations of patrons or so called bosses of maintainers of private armies, the clients and followers ... what makes them obey or act as private armies."
Adan said the commission found some police officers being controlled by local officials.
Zeñarosa said there is no law in the countries that punishes people who have private armies.
"The phenomenon of private armies is not new," she said. "It's been in the political scene for a long time."
She said it started with politicians who want political supremacy in their own turf. "This has become a part of a political machinery, and there is the matter of the Filipinos' affection for guns."
"Definitely these private armies are spawned by politicians," she said. "No private army can exist without firearms." - with a report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
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