EDITORIAL - Armed forces on the cheap

As government forces hunted down the militiamen involved in the Maguindanao massacre, another militia group went on a rampage in Agusan del Sur. The provincial police reported that about 15 armed men raided the New Maasim Elementary School in Barangay San Martin Thursday morning and seized 75 hostages, including school children, teachers and the principal. As of late yesterday afternoon, the raiders still had over 40 hostages.

Police said the raiders demanded speedier justice for the killing of their Manobo chieftain and three other tribal members in a clan war over access to logging areas. The raiders were armed with M-14 and M-16 weapons — apparently their keepsakes from their days as members of the Civilian Volunteer Organizations. The CVOs were created by virtue of Executive Order 546, issued by President Arroyo in July 2006, effectively allowing local executives to arm civilian volunteers for use as “force multipliers” against security threats. The EO went around a constitutional ban on private armed groups.

In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Ampatuan clan used the CVOs as weapons against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and threats to public safety. The CVOs received weapons and ammunition from the state, as the high-powered guns and crates of ammunition unearthed in Maguindanao have shown. Witnesses told investigators that CVO members made up the bulk of the group that slaughtered 57 people, 30 of them media workers, on a hillside in Ampatuan town on Nov. 23.

During the Marcos regime, some of the worst human rights abuses were also committed by militiamen belonging to what at the time was called the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units. As in the case of the Ampatuans’ CVO, CAFGU members functioned as private armies of politicians. With no formal training in military or police work, and often with limited formal education, CAFGU members believed power emanated from the barrel of a gun, and behaved accordingly. CVO members have the same mindset.

Following the Maguindanao massacre, some government officials are again making noises about dismantling private armed groups. Such pronouncements are unlikely to go beyond rhetoric. The Ampatuans’ private army will simply be replaced by that of another group of ARMM politicians. The militias are organized in countries that fail to invest sufficiently in developing credible, professional military and police forces. The CVOs function as armed forces on the cheap. We get what we pay for.