PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO gave the independent commission, which she created on Dec. 4, four months to dismantle private armies to render the provincial warlords powerless from terrorizing voters in the May 2010 election. The directive was all sound and fury. It is not backed by political will. The commission is nothing more than a toothless creature.

Early in the new year, Philippine National Police Director-General Jesus Verzosa virtually countermanded the President?s marching orders by defining the commission?s function as that of a study group.

Presidential Administrative Order 275 created the six-member commission to seek a ?comprehensive and lasting solution? to stamp out private armies. The commission was created with a sense of urgency in view of the election, which is only four months away, and following the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao, which has been blamed on the private army of the Ampatuan political clan.

Verzosa does not appear to share the President?s sense of urgency. In a cop-out, Verzosa thinks the commission is not an action body but its task is ?to understand why the military and the PNP failed to dismantle private armed groups.? The commission ?has to consider sociocultural aspects of the problem,? he said. ?The commission should look into the root causes of the formation of private armies.?

Under this approach, the commission is reduced to a study group, like a university seminar, while the election demands that private armies should not be allowed to coerce voters and to run amok and kill people at the behest of the warlords competing for local government posts. Under the President?s vision, the PNP should act as the key agency to dismantle the private armies within a time frame defined by the President. Instead of committing the PNP to this task, Verzosa explained: ?Political dynasties use their private armies to perpetuate themselves in power by threat or intimidation? Private armies also usually proliferate in poverty-stricken regions. In these areas, dependence of people on political personalities is very high so they tend to ignore their use of private armies.?

We don?t need a commission to discover all these sociological facts of life in areas dominated by political dynasties. The worst aspects of warlord abuse in recent times emerged from the Maguindanao massacre.

According to Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, citing military intelligence, there are up to 130 private armies all over the country, armed with close to a million loose firearms, more than the number of weapons in the hands of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police. The raids conducted by the military and police on the Ampatuan housing compounds during martial law, unearthed arsenals of modern weapons enough to equip two Army battalions of at least 2,000 men.

The seizure of the arms cache of the Ampatuans underscores the magnitude of the task of dismantling the private armies of the dynastic warlords and making the May election free and peaceful against the rapacity of the provincial warlords. The commission is tasked to prevent the repetition of the brutality of the Maguindanao massacre, a job which requires the presence and activist intervention of the national police.

This is a daunting task for the PNP, enough to cause Verzosa to develop cold feet. The reluctance of the police to intervene forcefully to keep the election free and peaceful, let alone disband the private armies, will be treated with disdain by the warlords of the likes of the Ampatuans. The commission will similarly be held in contempt by the warlords.

This is the first election since 1945 when political warlords threaten the integrity of the election with their capacity to commit violence and rig results in their areas. The state is being held hostage by warlords who control more coercive power than at any other time since elections were introduced in 1907.

There was a time when a couple of Philippine Constabulary soldiers stationed in trouble spots, including hotly disputed election areas, was sufficient to instill fear of and the respect for the law. Today, the lawless militia of the warlords is feared by the PNP. The police have been restrained in exercising their powers to maintain public order by political leaders who coddle warlords, and who are compromised by their deals with the warlords who rig election results to keep them in power. Such is the case of the electoral support of the Ampatuans in making President Arroyo win the 2004 election and in giving the administration?s senatorial candidates an 12-0 sweep in the 2007 election.

The dismantling of private armed groups is crucial for the the May election. The conduct of the election will determine whether the central government is in control or has abandoned its authority to the predatory warlords.

Verzosa is well aware of the stakes in the May election. But he also knows very well the limits of the political will of the compromised political leadership to back a campaign to crush warlord power.

A Palace spokesman has said that dismantling the warlords? armies is ?a tall order.? The presidential order creating the commission clothes it with only ?recommendatory? power, thereby tying its hands. Implementation of its recommendations rests in the hands of executive agencies, especially the PNP. The national police should be on the front line of the battle to crush warlord power. It is the duty of Verzosa to be in the center of the action?and not to seek cover behind academic exercises.