By Ronron
March 3, 2007
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Saturday that it has deployed troops in Metro Manila since November of last year, not for electioneering purposes, but to help the local communities solve their peace and order problems.
The admission of AFP National Capital Region Command (NCRCom) chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino came a day after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) asked him to investigate the allegations raised by Gabriela that soldiers are campaigning for people not to vote Left-leaning party-list groups come election day on May 14th.
“We admit that, even before the election period, we have military personnel in some problematic communities as early as November last year. And this is part of the novel approach that we are trying to introduce in the National Capital Region out of the belief that we want lasting peace and development, it should be community-based, rather than trying to impose peace through military force,” Dolorfino told reporters in a press briefing at the NCRCom headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday afternoon.
“We have a clear standing order from our higher headquarters that we should not involve ourselves in partisan politics. That is very clear to our men, they know that,” added Col. Ricardo Visaya, commander of the NCRCom Civil Military Operations (CMO) Battalion from where the deployed soldiers come.
In the same briefing, Visaya disclosed that 26 teams, each with about 10 members, were “immersed” in the urban poor and Moslem-dominated communities in the cities of Caloocan, Quezon, Taguig, and Manila (particularly in Sta. Mesa, Tondo, and Binondo) for said purpose.
He said the troops are being hosted by local officials, wear their uniform when they go about their daily duties, and bring as well their firearms – either long or short.
If they are not engaged in dialogues, the government troops are doing community services like participating in demolition of squatters’ shanties, said Visaya.
“It is a non-combatant unit. It is trained in non-military approaches. So our fellow countrymen should not worry or be afraid of them… We believe that there are so many problems in the communities and if we neglect these problems, later on, these will become peace and order problems,” explained Dolorfino.
Calling the approach as “peaceful, total, and proactive,” Dolorfino disclosed it was the military organization that volunteered their services to the local government units, in coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP), which is primarily in charge of the anti-criminality and peace and order campaign in the communities, especially in urban areas.
Pressed if the move is part of the AFP’s anti-insurgency campaign, Dolorfino answered in the affirmative, saying that the simple, local problems, when not addressed, may be exploited by militant groups and use it to fuel mass actions against the government.
“In the process of doing this, we are trying to eliminate the culture of rebelling against the government, fighting the government, resorting to parliament of the street to air our grievances… The intent of our community engagement is to turn the communities into peace-loving communities, law-abiding communities, productive communities, and eventually, supportive of the government. We should not destroy our own house, which is our country,” Dolorfino said.
While he has yet to receive confirmed reports of the deployed soldiers campaigning against Left-leaning organizations or candidates in the upcoming elections, Dolorfino said he immediately ordered upon receipt yesterday of Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos’ letter for an investigation on the matter.
“We will not hide anything. With clearance from our higher headquarters, we can make the result of this investigation public once we have completed (it),” he said.
But Dolorfino assured they are not after any personalities in their CMO activities in the Philippine capital, rather they are after the problems in small societies.
The official has yet to determine until when will the troops live with the communities. But one this is for sure. “Until such time that we see we have addressed the problems, the soldiers will continue to be immersed,” Visaya said.
The Defense department signed last October 12, 2006 a Memorandum of Agreement with Comelec, limiting the role of the AFP in the upcoming elections to avoid being dragged into electoral fraud allegations similar to what was reported in the May 2004 polls.
Consistent with this, the AFP leadership repeatedly reminded its men not to engage in partisan politics, other than voting on the election day./DMS
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