The Philippine National Police (PNP) is targeting individuals who may be used as “gun-for-hire” or assassins in the coming elections, even as it reported the arrest of some 20 hardcore members of private armed groups (PAGS) and at least 70 of their followers in various operations nationwide.

The PNP, at the same time, reported that the number of persons arrested for violation of the Comelec gun ban which took effect nationwide on January 10 has reached 820 as of Sunday.

P/Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina, PNP spokesman, said they are reckoning on more or less 500 to 600 more hardcore members of the different identified private armed groups in the country. “But we are optimistic that we will be able to neutralize them before the May elections,” he added.

Espina explained they are avoiding announcing the identities of the arrested hardcore members of private armies so as not to affect their on-going operations. He added government authorities are currently conducting surgical operations against identified PAGs in the country, numbering about 92.

Espina went on to say that the arrested hardcore PAGs members and their followers have already been charged in court. The suspects, he said, come from Masbate, which Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said is now in a state of political calamity; Maguindanao, Ilocos region, Samar, and the Southern Tagalog region.

Some of the suspects, however, were arrested in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The PNP spokesman, at the same time, said the PNP is discreetly monitoring individuals who may be used as assassins or gun-for-hire by unscrupulous politicians during the elections.

He went on to say that there is a wrong notion that most of these PAGs members are former policemen or soldiers. He said that while there may be a few police or military personnel who have become members of private armies, still, most PAGs member civilians have close ties with politicians.

Espina further said they are also closely monitoring areas that are not in the election watch list but have the potential to turn into a hotspot during the elections.

He explained that those in the Comelec watch list are areas where there have been recorded violent incidents during the past elections, especially in 2007 and 2004, but this does not necessarily mean that government forces will just focus its attention on these localities.