LAWMAKERS on Wednesday backed the plan of President Rodrigo Duterte to reinstate the so-called “Alunan doctrine” or limiting the number of bodyguards for each politician to only two.
In separate interviews with the Manila Standard, Reps. Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela, Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar, Alfred Vargas of Quezon City and Alfredo Garbin of Ako-Bicol party-list said there must be a policy in place limiting the body guards of politicians to prevent the establishment of private armies and avoid proliferation of loose firearms.
Albano and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said if a politician intended to increase the number of bodyguards, he or she could hire more through private security firms.
“I fully support this. In fact, I thought the limit was really two [body guards],” Tiangco said.
Albano said having more body guards from private security firms “is allowed by law.”
But Evardone and Vargas said while they supported the proposal of Duterte, they said this should be implemented on a case to case basis.
“I support that initiative but in areas where there is strong presence of terrorists, they should be given more with strict guidelines to prevent possible abuse,” Evardone said.
House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez doubted having more body guards would result in the proliferation of private armies.
“The policy to reinstate two body guards per politician must depend on the state of security risk of politicians,” Suarez said.
“If the security risk is high, then they must be entitled to more than two,” Suarez said.