Friday, March 16, 2007 But five towns in Cebu Province monitored closely for sightings of armed men
ALTHOUGH the police and election officers have not yet declared any town or city as an election area of concern, five towns in Cebu are being closely monitored.
This was after these towns had sightings of armed men recently and political figures have been at odds.
Task Force Hope (honest, orderly and peaceful elections) Commander Lani-o Nerez said that even if there have been no arrests of armed men in these areas, they already have to do something to address these reports before they get worse.
Supt. Erson Digal, deputy provincial director for operations, also said members of the Special Reaction Unit have been fielded to these towns to monitor the situations.
He identified the northern towns of Daanbantayan and Madridejos, Tabuelan and Tuburan towns in the west and the southern town Santander as being closely monitored.
He clarified that there have been no violent incidents yet, only verbal tussles between candidates.
The Regional Election Monitoring Action Center has been created to specifically monitor election-related events.
Action centers were also put up in the provincial, city and municipal levels.
Nerez reiterated that they can only finalize the list of areas of concern after the last day of the filing of certificates of candidacy on March 29.
For now, they are monitoring areas that were previously listed as election areas of concern due to incidents that happened in the past elections.
To prevent these verbal tussles from turning violent, provincial and city directors have been instructed to call all candidates together to sign a peace covenant.
NPA fees
Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. and Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria have separately been roving Cebu’s towns to check on the needs of the police stations.
Police also warned politicians planning to give money to members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Chief Supt. Ronald Roderos, deputy regional director for administration, said giving campaign fees to armed rebels is a violation of the election code.
While police have not yet monitored any candidates who have been approached or are working with armed rebels in their campaigns, they are expecting the communist rebels to start “extorting” money from candidates to pay permit to campaign fees.
“As in the past elections, it has been one of the practices of the CPP-NPA,” Nerez said.
He and Roderos assured that intelligence officers have been ordered to be on the lookout while their partners in the Armed Forces of the Philippines will be focusing their efforts on these activities.
Nerez said, though, that they will provide security to those who are threatened by the NPA for not giving in to their demands. (MEA)
