GMA: Government in full control

She’s still in charge.

President Arroyo reassured the Filipino people last night that she remains in full control despite peace and order problems and reported attempts by her political enemies to destabilize her five-month-old administration.

"Let me assure the country that the government is in full control. No destabilization plot will succeed," Mrs. Arroyo said in a brief taped message aired over government-owned station PTV-4.

The assurances were made two days after a kidnap-for-ransom case involving the daughter of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese businessman was linked to a plot to rock the government.

Mary Grace Cheng-Regasa was kidnapped with her two bodyguards Monday by a group of armed men inside the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City. The daughter of Uratex owner Robert Cheng, Regasa was freed 18 hours after the kidnappers reportedly received P20 million in ransom.

The government initially implicated the victim’s family in the plot to destabilize the administration, as probers were looking into possible links between the Chengs and opposition leaders.

The President apologized to Regasa and her family last night for the wrongful accusation but denied the government was hiding behind convenient excuses.

"While the political opposition has all the right to deny complicity, it is not true I am looking for scapegoats," she said.

Despite police verification that the Cheng case was a plain kidnap-for-ransom case, Mrs. Arroyo said she still believes destabilization plots were being hatched by anti-administration groups out to continue a failed power grab.

She assured the public that concerned government agencies are now taking steps to get the brains behind the destabilization efforts.

‘Figures don’t lie’

Malacañang has a message to those with serious doubts on the reported lower crime rate: Check the facts, the figures don’t lie.

Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo pointed out that incidents of crime have indeed gone down under the five-month old Arroyo government, and that the crime scare was merely a false impression being fueled by anti-administration groups.

"Misinformation and disinformation are part of destabilization efforts. There are many trying to cause a lot of turmoil in the country. But facts are facts. The figures don’t lie," Romulo said.

A recent report by the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed index crimes from January to May this year dropped by 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

However, questions have been raised over the validity of the PNP report, which was presented to President and the Cabinet last Tuesday.

Romulo confirmed yesterday that the report has been validated by Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr.

"Secretary Lina gave specific instances of perpetrators of crimes being apprehended. Compared to last year, disturbances to peace and order have really gone down. We are really apprehending criminals," he said.

The recent PNP report revealed that the biggest drop was in carnapping incidents, which went down to only 762 this year compared to 1,635 last year.

There were also only 30 kidnapping-for-ransom cases under the five-month-old Arroyo administration as against 48 last year under the watch of jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

Anti-crime watchdog groups like the Citizens Action Against Crime argued that the drop in kidnapping incidents could be attributed to the fact that most victims, especially from the Filipino-Chinese community, do not report cases to the police.

Romulo reiterated that the "no-ransom payment" policy is strongly being advocated by the government, whether in dealing with Abu Sayyaf bandits or urban kidnapping syndicates.

"The policy of the government remains the same. I call upon our countrymen to follow this policy," he said.

Romulo was recently designated chairman of the newly created Cabinet Oversight Committee (COC) on internal security that will handle matters related to the various insurgency movements in the country. Romulo has been designated chairman of the committee.

He said crime problems will soon be better addressed with the creation of the National Anti-Crime Council (NACC).

GMA vows to go after crime groups

President Arroyo has vowed to break the back of organized crime groups through the NACC, which will be headed by Justice Secretary Hernando Perez.

In a speech during the 110th anniversary of the Philippine Bar Association in a Makati hotel Wednesday night, the President said she wants the NACC to accomplish what previous anti-crime bodies have failed to do – put an end to lucrative criminal activities, especially kidnapping-for-ransom.

"We must prevent the vicious cycle of crime. We must deter individuals and groups from even contemplating to undertake nefarious activities," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said the NACC would not be making the same mistakes of previous anti-crime bodies like the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, whose members had been linked to crime syndicates.

Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda said there have been 47 cases of kidnapping in Metro Manila since January as she expressed doubts that these were politically motivated.

Legarda gave her views on the peace and order situation shortly after officials of various Filipino-Chinese organizations visited her and expressed their concern over the prevailing situation.

"According to them, the 47 was last week and did not include the kidnapping of Ms. Cheng-Regasa," she said, referring to the daughter of the owner of Uratex. "Not all of them were reported to the police."

She said that the relatives of the kidnap victims gave in to the demands of the kidnappers rather than report the incidents to the police.

The leaders of the Filipino-Chinese community, according to Legarda, asked her what government could do to protect them and their families from the rising criminality in Metro Manila.

The belief of the Filipino-Chinese leaders that criminality is rising runs counter to the stand of the Arroyo administration that it is actually going down. Legarda said she did not believe the Chinese had mentioned the 47 cases of kidnapping just to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

"Crime is crime. You cannot jack up figures. If they say there have been 47 (kidnappings), and they present facts and figures, I don’t think that can be invented. That is not a product of the imagination of the members of the Filipino-Chinese community," she contended.

She lauded the Filipino-Chinese community for continuing to help shore up the Philippine economy despite their problems. She pointed out that there has been no indication that they are going to pull out their investments.

"They have really done their part in helping the economy," Legarda added.

At the same time, she expressed concern over the creation of the new anti-crime body. She said that they powers of the new body are still not completely undefined, and it could merely be a rebirth of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission.

"Internal peace and order is duty of our police force, and creation of another body that will duplicate this role might send the wrong signal that the police are not capable of doing their job," Legarda stressed. – With Efren Danao