[Long ago, Phil Ochs wrote a satirical, anti-imperialist song, “We’re the Cops of the World,” and each day since has confirmed that ugly truth. New efforts to re-tool Philippine forces to match the operational methods of US imperialist forces are part of similar global restructurings, especially with the previously announced renewed “pivot to Asia.” See the articles from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN News/Phil Star — followed by the statement of the CP of the Philippines, below. — Frontlines ed.]
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NYPD deployed against Occupy movement
By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Sunday, November 4th, 2012
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) have joined forces in a memorandum of understanding to fight terrorism and transnational crimes.
PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome and NYPD’s Lt. Gustavo Rodriguez signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Camp Crame on Oct. 31.
“Mitigating transnational crime and combating terrorism is of utmost importance to the NYPD and we are proud to join forces with an agency that shares the same mission,” Rodriguez told reporters after the signing.
Bartolome said the PNP and NYPD would work together to mitigate transnational crimes “with emphasis on” illegal drugs, terrorism, smuggling, human trafficking, maritime fraud and cybercrime.
Bartolome said the MOU was about the “exchange of information” between the two police forces.
Philippine police deployed against farmers protest
“We have similar problems. It’s not just their problems or ours,” the PNP chief said.
Bartolome said the PNP had signed a similar MOU with the Australian Federal Police.
Rodriguez said the partnership would involve the collection of information on transnational crime and counter-terrorism that would be “disseminated back to New York City.”
“Anything that is going on on this side of the world involving counter-terrorism that could be of help to my city is what the MOU targets,” Rodriguez said.
ABS-CBN News, Phil Star, 21 Friday, June 1, 2012 — WASHINGTON D.C. – A Sinatra ditty promised that if you can make it in New York “you can make it anywhere” – a standard the Philippine National Police (PNP) will be testing as it forges a first-ever alliance with the New York Police Department (NYPD).
PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome is flying to the ‘Big Apple’ on June 14 to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NYPD chief Joseph Esposito. “When that was conceptualized, the PNP wanted close coordination with the US police agencies to stop terrorist activities,” explained retired police Director Renato Heredia, a former police attaché in Washington DC.The agreement will allow the NYPD to open a satellite office in the Philippines, mostly likely to be located within the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame. The PNP can also open a similar office in New York although this has to be threshed out when Bartolome meets his American counterparts because of the PNP’s limited funds. Chief Superintendent Armando Ramolete, police attaché, revealed that the MOU was years in the making. “There will be an exchange of information and training opportunities,” he said, adding that it could provide a mechanism for the PNP to modernize its crime-fighting tools.
The NYPD was established in 1845 and is considered the largest police force and 2nd largest law enforcement agency in the US. They have broad capabilities ranging from an Emergency Services unit to a Harbor Patrol to public transportation. The New York City Transit Police and New York City Housing Authority Police Department were merged with the NYPD in 1995. The NYPD also has one of the most sophisticated anti-crime computer network with an immense data warehouse.
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Information Bureau – Communist Party of the Philippines
Press Release – November 04, 2012
PNP-NYPD agreement will lead to further US intervention, rights abuses under Aquino regime–CPP
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the memorandum of agreement between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) signed last Wednesday as “part of heightening US government intervention in the Philippines.”
The CPP further said that “the agreement with the US NYPD, one of the most notorious fascist police organizations in the world, can only lead to worse human rights abuses by police operatives under the Aquino regime,” said the CPP.
The MoA was signed by PNP Chief Nicanor Bartolome and the head of the NYPD’s Singapore satellite office Lt. Gustavo Gutierrez. It purportedly serves to advance “cooperation in addressing transnational crimes” and “capacity building and training” between the PNP and the NYPD. According to information earlier released by the PNP, the NYPD will open a satellite office inside the PNP’s general headquarters in Camp Crame.
“The PNP-NYPD MoA will only serve as an additional legal cover for the US government’s heightening intervention in the Philippines. It will lead to more extensive and intrusive intelligence and other types of operations by US police and military agents in the country,” said the CPP.
“Even before the MoA, US police and federal agents have already been operating in the Philippines clandestinely with the cooperation of the local police.” The CPP pointed out that political prisoners detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame were able to uncover the presence of agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintaining their own offices within the camp and in a condominium unit nearby.
Several Indonesian nationals accused of being “terrorists” and arrested by US agents in Indonesia and Malaysia have been renditioned by the US government and given false Filipino identities at the behest of the FBI to justify their detention at Camp Crame. This is in violation of Philippine national sovereignty and the Indonesian detainees’ human rights, added the CPP.
“The NYPD is notorious for being a fascist tool of suppression against the American people,” said the CPP. “Recently, the NYPD was employed in the suppression of protest actions at Zucotti Park near Wall St. by American workers, students and ordinary people against the pro-big monopoly policies of the American government.”
“In investigations carried out by human rights and law groups, the NYPD was found to have used excessive police force, and guilty of hundreds of other violations, including unjustified arrests, abuse of journalists, unlawful closure of sidewalks and parks to protesters, and pervasive surveillance of peaceful activists, said the CPP.
“Following the pattern of its new partner, the PNP is bound to become even more brutal in dealing with protests, urban poor anti-demolition barricades and other mass actions,” said the CPP.
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