By Eddie Barrita
CEBU CITY, (PNA) — Police Regional Office 7 Director Danilo Constantino has said they will pull out the 130 policemen from Regional Public Safety Battalion 7 if the clashes with Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City continue to escalate.
He said the troops may be replaced by another team who will handle checkpoint operations and patrol strategic areas in the southern port city.
The policemen in full battle gear were flown in to Zamboanga City Wednesday to augment government forces in that city on orders of Camp Crame.
Hostilities broke out last Monday in Zamboanga City between government forces and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front.
As this developed, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wants two alleged members of the MNLF who are detained in the Cebu City Jail to be transferred.
Rama said the city’s jail might “not be very much” equipped to keep them.
He said he was told that the detention of the two in the Cebu City Jail was on orders of the Supreme Court.
But Rama said the local government unit should have a say on the matter, considering that the jail is located in the city.
Rama said he will ask the City’s Police Coordinating and Advisory Council headed by Eugene Elizalde to brief him about the matter, adding that he was not informed of the presence of the two MNLF members in the city jail.
Cebu City Jail Warden Superintendent Johnson Calub said they cannot easily transfer the inmates because there is a court order to detain them in the city jail.
He said the two have nothing to do with what’s happening in Zamboanga City.
The two had been initially jailed in Jolo, but the court transferred them, citing security reasons.