Soldiers will not perform poll duties on December 15

By Ronron
December 10, 2007

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. has not allowed soldiers to perform election duties during the upcoming December 15 special polls in some parts in Mindanao and in Pasay City, a military commander said on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Nelson Allaga, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Western Mindanao Command, said that upon the order of Teodoro, all military personnel will just be tasked to secure areas where the special elections will be held.

“We will just be limited to providing security. Anyway, Task Force Comet, which is based in Jolo, is already taking care of the security preparations there. They can do it,” Allaga told Defense reporters in a phone interview.

The special elections for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials will be held in 319 villages in Sulu, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Cotabato, Shariff Kabunsuan, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, and Pasay City.

Voting in these areas during the October 29 elections did not push through due to various forms of security threats that resulted, among others, the refusal of teachers to perform election duties.

Allaga said that should teachers decide not to perform again as election tellers on Saturday, they are expecting the Commission on Election (Comelec) to deputize instead police personnel, instead of soldiers.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, for his part, confirmed that only the Philippine National Police (PNP) was deputized to provide security during the conduct of the special polls.

“For Sulu, we can just talk about increased police strength there to address the possible high security threat. We have not deputized the AFP because we have not changed yet the Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of National Defense (DND) that only in cases of serious armed threat can the AFP be called in,” Jimenez said in separate phone interview.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, Jr. said in a separate interview that the PNP has already prepared for its role this Saturday.

“It’s the usual stuff that the police do when we are deputized. We’re there to ensure the security of the election process, that transport of election paraphernalia, ensuring that the election supervisors or tellers will be able to safely perform their duties, and after that, the canvassing, and brining back of the accountable forms to the municipal treasurer’s office,” Pagdilao said.

As to the performance of some police personnel as election officers, Pagdilao said: “We can do that if we are deputized by the Comelec, if they issue an order. We already did that in Lanao del Sur in the previous elections where police officers acted as election inspectors.”

Allaga said the military forces have already coordinated with the police for the security preparations, especially in Sulu where an improvised explosive device went off late Saturday night in front of the provincial Comelec office.

As regards their operations against Islamic militant rebels in Sulu and Basilan, Allaga said: “Our operations are ongoing as intelligence reports come. But our focus is just a little bit distracted because there were failure of elections in 70 barangays in Sulu (last October 29).”

The MOA between the Comelec and the DND that was signed in October 2006 was arrived at following the controversial “Hello Garci” tape exposure wherein several officers were implicated in alleged vote rigging operations during the May 2004 Presidential polls./DMS