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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Luzon devider PNP creates task force to look deeper into Kabacan shooting

PNP creates task force to look deeper into Kabacan shooting

Published Sep 2, 2020 03:03 pm

KIDAPAWAN CITY – The Philippine National Police (PNP) has formed a special team tasked to investigate the August 29 shooting of nine persons in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

Kabacan Municipal Police Chief Maj. Peter Pinalgan said the task force is going to be headed by Provincial Director Col. Henry Villar of the Cotabato Police Provincial Office (CPPO).

The group was organized after Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco gave the police marching orders to identify those behind the killings and place them behind bars.

Pinalgan said among the tasks given to the special investigation team was to link with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Regional Anti-Cyber Crime Prevention Unit based in General Santos City to identify netizens or groups sowing hate messages in social media.

Pinalgan told media here that it was unfortunate that the shooting that killed nine Moro civilians was pictured in social media as the start of a ‘Muslim-Christian’ war.

“That is not true.   There is no such thing as Muslim-Christian war.   This is just mere mass shooting with a motive that we have yet to fathom or dig deeper,” he stressed in an interview over RONDA FM TeleRadyo 106.1.

The task force is also bent to dispel as ‘fake news’ the reports that circulated over social media that the PNP was behind the killings and that it was a retaliation to avenge the death on August 24 of former Carmen PNP chief Major Joan Resurrecion.

Police Colonel Bernard Tayong, the task force spokesman, said their group had started profiling possible suspects in the shooting.

Tayong stressed the slugs recovered at the crime scene were already submitted to the PNP Crime Laboratory for ‘cross-matching’.

The suspects, he hinted, could be part of a group connected to a terror organization or a criminal syndicate.

He refused, though, to provide media results of such investigations as it might put in danger the lives of their key witnesses.

The task force will be composed of key officers from CPPO, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and the NBI Anti-Crime Prevention Unit.

The Philippine Army in North Cotabato has also joined the probe, and tasked its intelligence unit to coordinate with the local police.

“We are doing this to prevent escalation of conflict.   We don’t want this incident to hamper our peace and development efforts,” said Tayong.

On September 1, Kabacan Mayor Herlo Guzman called for a meeting with members of the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC), where they discussed the August 29 shooting incident.

Among those who attended the MPOC were police officers and key officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), and MILF Local Monitoring Team.  

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