MANILA – Some local politicians were reportedly conniving with kidnap-for-ransom groups to raise funds for the 2019 midterm elections, the Philippine National Police said.
Director General Oscar Albayalde, PNP chief, told a news conference Monday that they were verifying intelligence reports that local politicians, mostly in Mindanao, were resorting to this illicit activity.
“We are continuously validating intelligence reports of the active collusion of some local politicians with organized crime groups engaged in kidnapping-for-ransom,” Albayalde said.
The PNP has yet to establish links between local politicians and criminals, he added, noting that gathering evidence will be difficult and dangerous as the midterm polls draw near.
“Iyon kasing pagkuha ng physical evidence, iyong talagang magli-link sa politician or a local chief executive on that matter, napakahirap nating gawin,” Albayalde said. “The only thing that we can do is prevent it from happening.”
“We have yet to identify iyong mga politicians na may link sa criminal groups pero iyong mga kidnapping [activities have] taken place mostly in Basilan and Zamboanga,” the PNP chief added.
Moreover Albayalde said police were looking into any link between politicians and the Abu Sayyaf Group even as he claimed that the terrorist group was not that dominant anymore.
“It is not true that the Abu Sayyaf Group had been gathering strength since the PNP and the military continued with [their] massive operations against them,” he said./PN
