PNP chief orders intensified operations vs crime groups

By Myds Supnad

CAMP FLORENDO, La Union -- Philippine national Police Director General Nicanor A Bartolome, has mobilized all police regional offices and support units to intensify operations against organized crime groups engaged in hijacking and highway robbery.

In a news update emailed here by Supt. Harris Fama of the public information office of Camp Crame, Bartolome said hijacking of commercial cargo has become a bane of industrial growth and can be considered an act of economic sabotage because of its detrimental effect on trade and industry.

“Consistent with the PNP’s law enforcement and public safety mandate, we are paying special attention to law enforcement support to economic development by way of ensuring industrial peace and establishing an environment conducive to economic growth,” the PNP chief said.

Bartolome cited the neutralization on Tuesday of four armed members of a hijacking gang who were slain in a shootout with police operatives in Sto.Tomas, Batangas after the group had just seized two tons of meat products at the Southern Tagalog industrial zone in Calamba, Laguna.

The PNP recorded 34 hijacking and three highway robbery incidents in 2011 with 17 suspects neutralized in police operations.

Hijacking cases in 2011 dipped 26 % from 46 incidents in 2010.

Among the most notable results of anti-hijacking operations were the neutralization of the Sociro-Manlapaz Hijacking Group and arrest of five suspects during an encounter on November 8, 2011 in Green Valley, San Nicolas 3, Bacoor, Cavite .

Recovered from the group were the hijacked truck and items worth at least P5 million, and the encounter with cargo hijackers on November 9, 2011 along Victoria Road, Brgy San Antonio, San Pedro Laguna resulting in the death of four hijackers.