Region 8 police ready to combat insurgents

Is the entire Philippine National Police in the Waray provinces preparing to wage war against the communist rebels?  If so, from what context do the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Front, New People’s Army, and the allied fronts view this preparation?

Is the present kind readiness exhibited by the PNP not risking the safety and security of its own men, and those of their families … as well as those of the families of their defined enemies – families that may be innocent ab initio?

Just how prepared is the PNP for a combat with its insurgent targets?  Has it ever thought that, probably,  its enemies are also prepared to face them any moment from now?

Questions … more questions.  Endless asking.  No satisfactory answers in certitude.

One thing is coming out clear:  there will be bloodshed, if combat will be by force, plus death, wailing and mourning, and dirges.

Even in the name of peace.  Alas!  Irrefragable peace that keeps shattering.  Shattered by troubled minds.  Minds that are closed to universal terms and conditions.  And God forbid?!

These  come into play in the minds of the conscious public.  Including my own.  At the end of each day, there will always be two things tolook forward to:  whose decisions are right and in the right path, and, whose hope and wish will rule on the morrow.

This scenario builds up as eyes of Warays stare at the fact that an additional police force of 195 adequately trained PNP “scouts” is now ready to “beef up (the) campaign against local terrorist movement in Eastern Visayas”.  The 195 officially completed the PNP Special Counter Insurgency Unit Training (PNP SCOUT) under the SCOUT Class 17-2012 while 187 others will start training under the SCOUT Class 18-2012 to be held at the Regional Special Training Unit 8 (RSTU8).  No, they are not really the boy or cub scouts that many Filipino men became in the elementary or high school.  They are not also a revival of the old “Philippine Scouts” or of the “Scout Rangers”.  They are simply graduates of SCOUT, a special training program of the PNP.  SCOUT is short for the long title “Special Counter Insurgency Unit Training”.  

According to the Police Regional Office 8, “The PNP SCOUT is a rigid 45-day training designed to equip police officers with the requisite skills and confidence that will give them a distinct advantage in counter-insurgency and local terrorism operation. The training puts premium on combat skills development, jungle fighting and survival techniques and also teaches the participants the principles and techniques of urban crisis response operations primarily on search and rescue (SAR), and police intervention preparedness”.

Notwithstanding the training context, members of the police who have been carefully selected and specially trained under this course have gained an edge over their comrades in the same government bureaucracy.  The PNP regional director, chief superintendent Elmer Ragadio Soria, has pointed out, “We make sure that every PNP personnel deployed is ever ready, capable and efficient in handling his duties and responsibilities”

At the September 21 Joint Opening and Closing Ceremony of the PNP Scout Training at the PRO8 Grandstand which is inside Camp Sec. Ruperto K. Kangleon at Palo, Leyte, PCSupt Soria directed the training grads to enforce the law “with respect to human rights, as you transform yourselves into professional internal security specialists with the best interest of the community foremost in your hearts.  He reminded them:  “Being a police officer is not about what you can or cannot do, it’s about what you should do.”  He also   exhorted them to actively play their role in the anti-insurgency campaign  and stressed on the need to initiate aggressive campaign against criminalities and terrorism even as he expressed the corresponding need to further enhance the PNP’s Internal Security Operations (ISO) capability.

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I have received several invitations for lunch on Sept. 28 and 29 in Basey, in connection with that town’s annual fiesta celebration in honor of its patron saint,St.Michael the Archangel.  I thank  here all those who wished for my presence in their home banquets for vespera and fiesta proper.  I,however, am not sure if I can enjoy with them on this occasion.  My ulcer is becoming more acute and attacks me just at any time of day or night.  I’ve been writhing in pain since Sept.4.  The omeprazole capsules that my doctors had prescribed had not been of much help.  The ulcerous pain forces me to disgorge bitter and sour saliva and to couch myself on bed for long hours.  I am told I can no longer get away from this ailment which almost caused my life when I was with a special-mission team to campaign for support to the feverish plan of the provincial government of Leyte to establish a smelting plant at Isabel,Leyte.  A few months after that info drive, the PASAR emerged at Isabel and a few months more afterwards, actual smelting began.

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“It is up to us to organize the people.  As for the reactionaries in China, it is up to us to organize the people to overthrow them. Everything reactionary is the same; if you don’t hit it, it won’t fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish of itself.” – Mao Tse Tung

By: Chito Dela Torre

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