‘Terrorists should be kept in military, not police jails’

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PNP CHIEF Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr yesterday said he does not want arrested terrorists to be detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame to prevent incidents similar to the recent hostage-taking of former senator Leila de Lima.

He said terrorists should be detained in detention facilities of the Armed Forces.

“It’s better if this type of persons (terrorists) will be with the AFP so that they will be staying in a maximum facility and they will be secured properly by our soldiers,” Azurin said in a television interview.

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On Sunday, three terrorists, led by Abu Sayyaf leader Idang Susukan, stabbed and injured a policeman who was distributing food inside the Camp Crame jail as they tried to escape.

Susukan and Daulah Islamiyah (DI) member Arnel Cabintoy were shot dead by a police sniper.

The third, DI member Feliciano Sulayao, ran to De Lima’s cell and took her hostage. Sulayo was shot dead by a police officer during negotiations for surrender.

Azurin said there are seven detainees left at the PNP Custodial Center, with of them women including De Lima.

Azurin initially said no Abu Sayyaf member or terrorist is detained at the facility but later said “we will have to check our data.”

“Honestly, if we have our way, they (terrorists) should not be really detained inside Camp Crame,” said Azurin.

In the past, Azurin said, only government officials facing criminal charges are detained at the facility.

“But what happened was, sometimes, most of the time, the court would order the PNP to detain other persons for some reasons or another,” he said.

“So we really have to review the policies like this to prevent incidents that occurred last Sunday morning,” he said.

Azurin also said the PNP will follow any order in the case of De Lima who has been detained at the PNP Custodial Center since 2017 for drug-related offenses.

Meanwhile, Azurin apologized to Sen. Robin Padilla after a policemen referred to the three suspects as Muslims, while relaying the hostage-taking incident to his superiors.

Padilla has called the attention of the PNP leadership after videos, where the policeman called those committed the crime as Muslims, spread on the internet.

“We would like to apologize to our good senator, this comments are well-noted… We will try to correct the misgivings or shortcomings that happened,” said Azurin.

PNP public information office chief Brig. Gen. Roderick Alba said: “The entire PNP organization would like to apologize to the good Sen. Robin Padilla and the entire Muslim community for the inconvenience brought by the interpretation for using the term ‘Muslim’ to refer to someone committing a crime.”

Alba said the policemen used the word “without any malice” or any intention “to malign the reputation of our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

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