Bato admits PNP’s lapses in keeping terrorists from escaping Mindanao

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa showed that he has no plans of covering up his team’s shortcomings by admitting the lapses the PNP had committed in keeping terrorists from penetrating Metro Manila.

This, after the arrest of a Maute group sub-leader, Abdul Nasser Lomondot, and wife, Raisalam, in Tondo, Manila on Saturday.

“Well, no excuse for that, we have no excuse. They have really escaped and arrived here. We have no alibi to cover that up,” Dela Rosa said on Monday while presenting the two Maute members to the public.

He said the two made it out in Mindanao and had the chance to proceed to Manila due to the PNP’s limited capacity to bar individual rebel escapees. Dela Rosa stressed that if it were a group that fled Mindanao, it would be easier for the police to catch them.

“It appears here that we really had shortcomings. Well, we accept that we had lapses that’s why they were able to leave Mindanao and enter Metro Manila,” he said.

“If they escape one by one, unless they move by team and they are armed, but even without arms as long as they look suspicious we will have an appropriate action against them but if they do it one by one, it is hard,” Dela Rosa added.

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 03/ 05/18)