PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief, General Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr. on Sunday maintained that the crackdown on unauthorized private bodyguards being employed by POGO operators and other moneyed foreign nationals in the country will spare no one.

The top cop ordered the crackdown amid a series of untoward incidents regarding the involvement of Chinese nationals in criminal and other abusive acts in the land, majority of them related to POGO or online casino debts.

Last week, Gen. Azurin ordered all concerned police units to regularly check unauthorized security personnel in POGO establishments and other industries that have become notorious for illegal activities and violence.

In many hotels and casinos in Metro Manila, Chinese casino patrons and known POGO operators are daily being seen with a coterie of burly bodyguards in civilian clothes, many of them carrying firearms as they board SUVs and cars.

There were also complaints that some ‘heavily-tattooed’ Chinese nationals who don’t know how to speak even a little bit of English and Filipino have been enlisted as ‘honorary officials, even with 2-star rank’ in some law enforcement agencies outside the PNP.

These ‘Chinese 1-star or 2-star officials’ in one law enforcement agency guarding the country’s maritime resources are also being seen accompanied by bodyguards.

“In the wake of reports of alleged participation of some licensed Protective Agents in violent incidents involving their protectees, I have directed the PNP Civil Security Group and Police Regional Offices to conduct an inventory and accounting of all private Protective Agents providing security services as “bodyguard’ to some VIPs, including foreigners engaged in business activities in the country,” Gen. Azurin said.

Lately, police have investigated a number of incidents involving rogue Chinese nationals and their Protective Agents.

They include the case of two Chinese nationals and their Filipino Protective Agent who were accused of involvement in a case of indiscriminate firing inside the Fontana Resort in Clark Freeport Zone on Tuesday last week until they were arrested in a hot pursuit operation by agents of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group under Brigadier Gen. Ronald O. Lee.

Confiscated from the suspects were an Armscor caliber .45 semi-automatic pistol with two magazines containing 32 live ammunition, one 9mm pistol with two magazines loaded with 22 bullets; and one cal. .45 Colt pistol with a magazine containing seven live ammunition.

The following day, PNP-CIDG officers arrested a suspected Chinese gangster and his Filipina companion inside the same freeport zone while reportedly conducting a surveillance on some targets. Recovered inside the suspects’ vehicle were one unlicensed caliber 9mm pistol with a

PNP-CIDG agents also arrested four Chinese POGO employees accused of kidnapping their compatriots in the southern part of Metro Manila and demanding ransom from them. A cal. .45 pistol was recovered from one of the suspects whose latest victim was asked to produce a P2 million ransom for his safe release.

Then there is also that July 22 incident inside the Apartment Building in Marina Bay in Barangay Don Galo, Parañaque City where two Chinese nationals were shot to death. National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, Brig. Gen. Jonnel C. Estomo said he ordered a massive hunt for at least four Chinese nationals and their 17 Filipino companions, some of them said to be Protective Agents and suspected police officers tagged as suspects in the murder case.

Gen. Azurin said that as a general rule, licensed Protective Agents must be covered by Special Duty Detail Order (SDDO) from the PNP Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies(SOSIA) authorizing them to carry firearms and perform bodyguard duties for their protectees.

Protection agents must also be covered by an Authority to Deploy Protection Agents issued by CPNP (valid for one year) or TDO (valid for up to 6 months) and SDDO issued by CSG – SOSIA, he added.

The PNP CSG-SOSIA, in coordination with the five NCRPO police districts and the 17 other Police Regional Offices have been ordered by Gen. Azurin to inspect all private security personnel performing duties in areas where there are known POGO operations.

Subject of the inspection are watchmen, security guards and Protective Agents, he said.