Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Relief of maritime unit in General Santos sought By Allen V. Estabillo
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Local officials here are seeking the immediate relief of the maritime police unit here in the wake of an investigation on the alleged extortion activities and abuses perpetrated by local maritime policemen on small tuna fishermen from this city and nearby Sarangani province.
Representative Darlene Antonino-Custodio and the City Council separately urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership over the weekend to transfer the officials and personnel under the 12th PNP Maritime Group here to another unit while their investigation on the alleged unscrupulous activities of the units is ongoing.
The PNP Maritime Group's central office sent its deputy chief investigator, Supt. Manuel Reyes, to this city over the weekend to investigate the charges, which has been repeatedly denied by the officials and personnel of the unit.
Last week, officials and several members of the 2,500-strong Alliance of Tuna Handliners (ATH) trooped to the City Council session hall here to denounce the supposed "preying" on their members of "money, crude oil and some fish" by local maritime policemen.
"They should be transferred to another unit to erase doubts from the people regarding the fairness of their investigation," Custodio said.
The 12-man City Council led by Vice Mayor Florentina Congson also backed Custodio's calls, saying their continuous presence in the area might affect the outcome of the investigation.
But Reyes assured Custodio and the City Council of an impartial investigation saying he was instructed by his superiors to dig deeper into the case and "find out the truth."
He said he has already summoned the involved maritime policemen for initial inquiry as part of their administrative investigation.
"If the outcome of our investigation warrants the dismissal or suspension of any of our personnel then we will do it," he said.
Reyes said the PNP leadership will not tolerate any kind of irregular activity done by its personnel and it is serious in its campaign to clean up the ranks of rogue policemen.
Roger Lim, vice chair for international of the ATH, said they welcome the ongoing investigation but cited that they want "swift and decisive" actions on the matter.
"We've suffered so much from their abuses. We will be very happy to see them go," he told reporters.
In their complaint filed before the City Council, Lim claimed that their grouping had already lost about a million pesos from payments in-cash and in-kind to maritime policemen as a way to fix their supposed violations.
He said maritime police are not just victimizing members of the alliance of their extortion activities but also operators of purse seiners, which catch small tuna processed by the canneries in the city.
"After apprehending our fishing boats, they would ask us how much can we pay to them so we can have them back. It's purely extortion and blackmail," he said.
In most instances, Lim said the maritime policemen would also ask for some of their tuna catches and crude oil.
He said the maritime policemen would apprehend their boats purportedly in compliance with the government's anti-terrorism campaign and for violation of some fishery laws and their supposed lack of pertinent papers or permits.
But Supt. Remegio Letrero, chief of the 12th PNP Maritime Group, dismissed the group's accusations saying they are "baseless and sweeping."
"I don't deny that there are bad eggs in our organization but in this case, we are innocent. None of my men ever apprehended their fishing boats illegally and then extracted money from them," he said.
Letrero urged Lim to pinpoint any of his men who are allegedly involved in such illegal activities and present evidences against them.
He added that they are willing to be pulled out from the city while the investigation is ongoing when ordered by their superiors.
