MANILA, Philippines?The last thing the troubled areas of Mindanao need is another army roaming the countryside and terrorizing citizens. But here we have not one but two groups threatening to rear their ugly heads, one newly resurrected, the other still aborning. Both are believed to have the blessings and support of the government; the second group is, in fact, being organized and equipped by the Philippine National Police.

Shortly after some forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) went on a rampage of murder and pillage in three Mindanao provinces early this month, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon announced the creation of a village level counter-force ostensibly to enable peaceful civilians to protect their communities against rebel bands. This group is to be composed of ?selected, screened and trained? police auxiliaries, village watchmen and civilian volunteers. Razon said the PNP initially plans to distribute 1,000 shotguns, and if the experiment proves successful, it would give away 12,000 more.

If recent history is any guide, that number represents 13,000 unaccountable, ill-disciplined and potentially abusive goons that will not stand up and fight in the face of an enemy that is superior in both number and firepower. Instead they will turn their energies to intimidating and terrorizing the very communities they are supposed to protect. The Citizens? Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and its earlier incarnations, like the Civilian Home Defense Forces, are not very reassuring examples of what police or military auxiliary forces can do or can be. At the very least they are easily transformed into private armies of warlords disguised as local officials or lawmakers, and at worst they become an uncontrollable bunch of vigilantes, outdoing the most murderous rebel groups in sowing terror and wreaking death and destruction wherever they operate.

Which is exactly what the so-called Reform Ilaga Movement (RIM) threatens to do. [Read story] The Christian armed group, a revival of the dreaded Ilaga that unleashed a wave of violence in Muslim communities in the 1970s, has announced a new balance of vengeance: not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but 10 eyes or 10 teeth for every eye or every tooth the MILF destroys. ?For every civilian killed, we will execute 10 Moro rebels,? the spokesman of the group warned Wednesday in a clandestine press conference in North Cotabato province.

That may be fine?if they can deliver. It will make winning the war so much easier for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. But even as the military boasts about the ?mathematical precision? of their operations, the ?collateral damage? mounts as government forces pursue two MILF commanders whose forces murdered dozens of civilians and looted and burned their homes in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato. Only last Sunday, the Commission on Human Rights counted 20 civilians killed as government troops overran MILF positions in Lanao del Norte. Once the Ilaga and the police auxiliaries get going, expect the slaughter of the innocents to intensify.

It happened before in 1971, when the Ilaga massacred 65 men, women and children inside a mosque in Carmen, North Cotabato. It happened again in 1985, when Norberto Manero and his gang of Ilaga gunned down Fr. Tullio Favali and literally feasted on his corpse. And it is happening now with CAFGU members helping the military or acting on their own to hunt down suspected communist rebels and make them disappear from the face of the earth.

Nothing good has come out of organizing and arming civilians to fight insurgents of any stripe. Nothing good will come out of the plan to create another armed group in the guise of self defense. Making war is the responsibility of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and keeping peace is the duty of the PNP. Unless they are ready to disband, their tasks cannot?and should not?be delegated to civilians.

The PNP should abandon this foolish idea of distributing firearms to civilians. That will only create a new army that will be difficult to control. Instead, the authorities should act swiftly to disband the RIM before it can begin its misguided mission. Letting it be is to risk turning the punitive military operations in parts of Mindanao into a bigger and wider conflagration.