Body formed to expedite cases committed vs cops, soldiers

FILE: The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday signed an agreement creating the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action (IACLA). (PNA Photo)

MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday signed an agreement creating the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action (IACLA).

The agreement was signed during the conduct of the 20th AFP-PNP National Joint Peace and Security Coordination Council meeting in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and AFP Chief of Staff Eduardo Año signed the agreement which will expedite the prosecution of cases against the New People’s Army (NPA) and other armed groups that commit atrocities against the PNP and the AFP.

According to Police Director Camilo Cascolan, chief of the PNP Directorate for Operations, even before the agreement, the PNP and the AFP already had the so-called Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG), which pursued cases against rebels and bandits.

Cascolan noted that the IALAG was abolished in 2012 and the PNP created the Committee on Legal Action, but it was not as effective as the IALAG which it replaced.

PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management Director Augusto Marquez explained that there are 2,504 cases of atrocities committed against the policemen and soldiers in the countryside which were recorded from January 2012 to July 2017, of which only 292 cases are considered “cleared” or “solved.”

Marquez noted that this was a very low level of performance in the prosecution of those who commit atrocities against policemen and soldiers.

He said the newly-created IACLA is geared towards solving the big backlog of unresolved cases against the NPA and other enemies of the state.