PRO8 campaign against PAGs gains headway, arrests 2 leaders

By RPCRD, Police Regional Office 8
September 25, 2012

CAMP SEC. RUPERTO K. KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte  –  The crackdown of the Philippine National Police in Eastern Visayas against Partisan Armed Groups (PAGS) is gaining grounds more than 7 months before the mid-term elections next year.

Police Regional Office 8 Director PCSupt Elmer Ragadio Soria said that the relentless efforts of his office to dismantle the PAGS in the region had made headway with the arrest of two other PAG members operating in Samar recently.

“The credibility of elections is threatened because these PAGs are used by the politicians to intimidate, harass and coerce voters as they sow terror in communities by terrorizing people, thus, an intensified police actions against them months before the elections is being undertaken by this office’, Soria said.

The top police official disclosed that his men even conducted operations in Metro Manila and nearby provinces resulting in the arrests of two leaders maintained by an influential politician in Samar.

“All partisan armed group members with arrest warrants should be arrested and placed behind bars while the firearms they are carrying should be accounted for,” he said.

The Regional Director said that in the early morning of September 23, at Sitio Quarry, Brgy. Sapang Palay, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, elements of Special Task Group against PAGs led by PCInsp Marben M Ordonia, Chief, Provincial Intelligence Branch of Samar PPO and PInsp Fritz B Blanco, Chief of Police of Gandara Municipal Police Station arrested one Nicanor Moloboco alias Nick-Nick, an escapee from Samar Sub-Provincial Jail, Calbayog City, Samar, leader of Moloboco PAG by virtue of an arrest warrant for the crimes of Murder docketed under Criminal Case Nos. 11-0495; 05-0277; 11-0521; 10-0494; 05-0297 and Robbery in Band docketed under Criminal Case No. 0087 issued by Hon. Judge Feliciano G Aguilar of RTC Branch 41, Gandara, Samar.

Moloboco is ranked Number 1 in the list of Most Wanted Persons in Samar Province with approved DILG Monetary Reward of One Hundred Forty Pesos (P140,000.00).

Relatedly, at about 6:00 PM of September 22, at Victory Mall, Caloocan City, same PNP team arrested one Rely Cabogoy alias Nonoy Nguyit, member of Moloboco PAG by virtue of Warrant of Arrest for the crime of Murder docketed under Criminal Case No. 11-0495 issued by Hon. Judge Feliciano G Aguilar of RTC Branch 41, Gandara, Samar. Said person is ranked Number 2 in the list of Most Wanted Persons in Gandara, Samar.

The Regional Director further disclosed that he directed his intelligence operatives to intensify information gathering on any planned activities by PAGs in order to neutralize the two remaining groups operating in Samar, adding that his office is trying its best to dismantle these two PAGs the soonest possible time considering that elections is getting nearer.

"Our effort to dismantle PAGs is a necessary stop to end election violence in the region,” Soria said, adding that President Benigno Aquino III himself has issued marching orders to the Philippine National Police to dismantle private armies with only 7 months left before the May 13, 2013 polls.