By Ronron
January 24, 2007
After it was abandoned by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has no other recourse this time but to task the Philippine National Police (PNP) in closely securing the upcoming polls.
But, facing the media after a closed-door command conference at Camp Crame, Quezon City, the Comelec and PNP leadership yesterday vowed that the same controversy that the AFP got into in the 2004 polls as having been politicized will no longer happen.
“We already released Police Operational Procedures in connection with the election exercise. And we already released a lot of directives for the regional directives about the implementation how to conduct checkpoints, how to protect the integrity of the Philippine National Police in the conduct of our duty for this coming elections. So we have safeguards for this,” PNP chief Gen. Oscar Calderon said.
While Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, Sr. disclosed that the PNP will assume the previous roles of the AFP, Calderon said there will be some modifications, like counting of votes will not be held at police camps, and policemen will not be involved in the tallying of votes.
“Definitely, no chance because we have safeguards,” Calderon said when asked if there will be a PNP-version of the “Hello Garci” controversy.
In June 2005, the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes surfaced containing recorded conversations allegedly of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano a few days after the May 10, 2004 elections. Arroyo was a Presidential candidate then.
The conversations suggest that military officials, including incumbent AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., were being utilized by Arroyo in allegedly rigging the results of the 2004 elections to her favor, as against her close rival Fernando Poe, Jr.
To avoid the military establishment being dragged again into election controversies, then Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr. initiated in October last year the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Comelec, limiting the role of the AFP only to responding to direct armed threats at a certain place.
As such, Abalos said yesterday that tasks of securing voting and canvassing precincts and paraphernalia will now be assumed by the PNP.
“We have seen the fitness of the PNP in the implementation of this mandate,” Abalos said.
Abalos expressed dismay that the “Hello Garci” issue has been blown out of proportion in the media even when “at most, this gentleman, who professes to be Mr. Garci or Mr. Garcillano, was only trying to impress the lady he was talking to.”
“If ever there was anything that was proven in the tape, it was proven that the Comelec cannot be compromised by one and single commissioner. No one commissioner, not even I, can commit the commission for that matter,” Abalos said.
He maintained there was no rigging of votes that happened since the conversation supposedly happened on May 29, 2004, five days after the canvassing of votes for Senatorial candidates was already finished.
“I, for one, will entertain calls, any and all calls coming from anywhere expect from calls that would dictate or that would ask that we cheat,” Abalos said yesterday.
He said this is to give chance to those who felt aggrieved but could not be attended to in the precinct and municipal level.
A month after the “Hello Garci” tapes came out, Arroyo made a public apology for the her lapse in judgement in calling an election official. But she stressed that it was done only to protect her votes and not to rig the results. She also pointed out that the call was made only after the votes for the Senatorial candidates were already canvassed.
Thirty days before May 14, 2007, Abalos said the PNP from the provinces down to the cities and municipalities will eventually be under the supervision and control of the Comelec.
Calderon warned that anyone caught engaging in partisan politics will immediately be relieved and subjected to investigation.
Meanwhile, more than 600 cities and municipalities are initially listed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) as election hotspots based on the different security threats posed by the political groups and insurgents in the area.
PNP records showed that 49 cities and municipalities are regarded as “election areas of immediate concern,” eight of which are in Region V.
Places tagged by PNP as “election areas of immediate concern” mean that all parameters of an election hotspot are obvious. These are: categorization as an insurgency-infested area, with 50 percent of the total barangays in the province affected by communists and partisan armed groups; the occurrence of election-related violent incidents; the existence of intense partisan political rivalry in at least 70 percent of all towns and cities; and, the occurrence of incidents that can disrupt the electoral proceedings or create political tension that could upset the process in the immediate area and surrounding areas.
Other areas placed under “immediate concern” by the PNP are five in Region I; three in Region II; three in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); two in Region III; four in Region IV-A; four in Region IV-B; one in Region VI; two in Region VII; four in Region VIII; four in Region IX; one in Region X; two in Region XI; one in Region XII; two in Region XIII; and three in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
On the other hand, 564 other cities and municipalities are categorized by the PNP as just “election areas of concern,” which means only two of all the parameters cited above (for those under immediate concern) are present.
The breakdown of these areas of concern goes: 36 in Region I; 38 in Region II; 31 in CAR; 47 in Region III; 45 in Region IV-A; 14 in Region IV-B; 51 in Region V; 31 in Region VI; 27 in Region VII; 39 in Region VIII; 32 in Region IX; 31 in Region X; 25 in Region XI; 37 in Region XII; 26 in Region XIII; and 54 in ARMM.
The final determination of the election hotspot areas, however, will only be known after once the candidates for the local posts are already known.
“We can only finalize the records if all local candidates will have filed (their candidacy)… That’s a factor – who will be the candidate in a municipality. We will only know the situation in a municipality if we know who the candidates are,” said Director Antonio Billones, Deputy Chief for Operations of the PNP, and concurrent PNP Task Force HOPE commander.
Local officials, ranging from members of the House of Representatives to city and municipal officials, have until March 29 to file their candidacies at their respective Comelec offices. The filing started on January 15.
The national elections will be conducted on May 14./DMS
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