Breakdown

Is there an effort to undermine the Marcos 2.0 administration?

The question has cropped up amid a spate of daring ambushes within less than a month targeting local government executives.

By far the most brazen and deadliest is the latest, with at least six gunmen in camouflage uniforms and flak vests barging into the home of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo as he was distributing ayuda to constituents on Saturday morning.

Degamo died along with five others. Three more succumbed to gunshot wounds yesterday; 13 were still critically wounded, including a doctor and two Army soldiers as of last night.

The gunmen ignored the presence of heavy security around a provincial governor as well as the certainty of surveillance cameras at his home in Barangay San Isidro, raising suspicions that they were taunting authorities.

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin brushed aside such speculations. He stressed that three of the gunmen – all dismissed from the Army – were quickly captured during pursuit operations by the PNP and military, indicating that the assassination was not that well organized.

Other security officials, on the other hand, said the group of mostly dismissed Army officers are not ordinary criminals.

A local PNP spokesman said the gunmen belonged to an organized crime ring with cars, high-powered weapons and uniforms from law enforcement agencies. He said the gang members were dishonorably discharged from the uniformed services and some are facing illegal drug charges.

Degamo’s assailants were heavily armed: police said they recovered five assault rifles, a B40 (RPG-2) shoulder-fired anti-tank grenade launcher plus four fully loaded bandoliers during pursuit operations by combined military and police teams early yesterday in Bayawan City, after one of the suspects was shot dead Saturday night. Where do lawless elements obtain anti-tank weapons in this country?

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As lawmakers expressed alarm over the attacks targeting politicians, Azurin reassured the public that the situation was “under control” and there was no need to declare a state of emergency in Negros Oriental, as proposed by the Super Ate ng Pangulo who visited Degamo’s wake yesterday in Dumaguete City.

Azurin, in a press conference at the provincial police headquarters in Sibulan, said that “so far, everything is still on the manageable level.”

He was joined at the press conference by President Marcos’ cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos and Armed Forces chief Gen. Andres Centino.

Incidentally, Centino was returned to the top AFP post last January, replacing Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro who was appointed as AFP chief by BBM in August last year (replacing Centino who led the AFP from Nov. 12, 2021 as Rodrigo Duterte’s last military chief).

The leadership switching in the AFP, combined with the “courtesy resignations” demanded from over 900 PNP generals and full colonels by Abalos ostensibly to ferret out a handful of drug personalities in the police service, fueled talk about renewed destabilization.

Clarita Carlos, who admitted being kept in the dark about what was happening in the AFP and seemed unaware of any unrest within the security establishment, resigned as national security adviser.

She has been replaced by Duterte’s interior secretary, former AFP chief Eduardo Año. Both Año and another retired AFP chief, Carlito Galvez Jr. who now sits as senior defense undersecretary, moved to dispel any unrest, whether real or imagined, in their organizations.

The destabilization talks subsequently died down… until assassins began brazenly going after local politicians.

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Last month, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. was shot and injured together with his executive assistant on Feb. 17 in an ambush on his convoy. Four of his bodyguards were killed.

Police initially said Adiong’s crackdown on illegal drugs appeared to be the likely motive for the attack. Three men allegedly linked to local terror cell Dawlah Islamiya have been charged for the ambush. All are at large.

On Feb. 19, Aparri town Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda and five of his companions died in an ambush in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya staged by men in police uniforms and riding in a vehicle with government license plates. The killers are also at large.

Degamo, who supported Marcos’ presidential bid last year, was initially declared the loser in the race for provincial governor, but he was later installed in office after winning in a court petition.

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There have been reports that certain quarters in the security agencies are dismayed by what they deem to be the shift to a softer government stance in dealing with criminality particularly drug offenses.

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, architect of Duterte’s brutal Oplan Tokhang campaign against illegal drugs, told us last week on One News’ “The Chiefs” that each administration is free to pursue its own approach to criminality.

Pressed for further comment, however, he lamented that drug dealers appeared to be getting bolder, with the attack on Adiong linked to drug traffickers.

There are reports that some PNP members have also become hesitant to pursue a more aggressive approach to law enforcement. The cops reportedly believe that no one has their back under Marcos 2.0, unlike during the time of Duterte who said he was ready to go to prison for cops who carry out his tough stance on criminality.

Marcos Junior, however, seems bent on showing the world that while he adores his dearly departed dad, they part ways when it comes to anything that smacks of authoritarian tendencies.

People sick of six years of bloody short cuts to law enforcement prefer BBM’s kinder, gentler approach to criminality.

But he will have to deal more decisively with what is shaping up to be an appalling breakdown of peace and order – whether it’s part of destabilization or not.

If lawless elements can show such brazenness in going after local politicians who typically enjoy heavy security, ordinary folks cannot feel safe.