PNP seeks improvement in antiterrorism capability

TO enhance its capabilities in counter-terrorism and crisis management, the National Police is seeking to increase closer cooperation with the British police and hopes to acquire strategies and policies in modern-day policing.
       Deputy Director General Avelino Razon Jr., National Police deputy chief for operations, hoped to accomplish this when he met with officials of the London Metropolitan Police.
       Razon flew to London late Monday for a five-day meeting with his counterparts in the said country.
       “Part of my trip is to look for other areas where cooperation between the Philippine and British governments will come in,” Razon told reporters.
       “I will look at the latest crime trends, their strategies . . . policies in modern-day policing,” Razon added.
       While in London, Razon said he will also check on two National Police officials—Senior Supts. Leo Napeñas and Benigno Durana—who are on a six-month strategic management training course with the London police.
       The training involves criminal investigation, handling of hostages and other crisis situations, and counterterrorism.
       “Counterterrorism is a major item that we are looking into,” Razon said.
       Still on counter-terrorism, the National Police hopes to enhance its capability in handling post-terror attack investigations as it expects the arrival in August of five forensic equipment from the Australian government.
       Chief Supt. Ernesto Belen, director of the National Police Crime Laboratory, said the equipment worth P200 million was earlier pledged by the Australian government to the National Police.
       Belen said he met with Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Tony Hely in Camp Crame late Monday and thanked the Australian government for the equipment and training assistance it had given to the National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
       “The equipment will be used for chemical analysis of explosive material … It will be used for the counter-terrorism capacity-building project of the National Police and the NBI,” Belen told reporters.
       “I met with him [Hely] not to ask for more assistance but to thank the Australian government,” he said.
       Belen said at least 25 crime laboratory personnel have trained in Australia on post-blast investigation and disaster victim identification (DVI) since 2004.
       He said that on February, the Philippines received P2 million worth of DVI equipment from Australia.
       Because of lack of equipment, Belen said that his office is focusing on the training of his men.
       At present he said most of the equipment at the crime laboratory were donated by other countries, including the P400-million Automated Fingerprint Identification System from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
       The London-based human rights group Amnesty International meanwhile said the “war on terror” in the Philippines is failing and unless the government puts human rights above its “narrow security interests” it will continue to fail.
       According to the group, public confidence in the ability of the government to conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations of human rights violations and other crimes and to deliver justice remained fragile, underscoring the need for the administration to swiftly act on the many murders of activists in the Philippines.
       Amnesty International (AI), in its 2006 annual report, said the implementation of fair trials remained weak and criminal suspects are still at risk of torture and ill treatment by the police and the military. F. Marasigan and J. Mayuga