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Thursday, May 10, 2007
Military pulls out of metro barangays
MANILA -- Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Wednesday ordered the pullout of hundreds of soldiers deployed in depressed communities in Metro Manila in time for the senatorial and local elections on Monday.
Esperon announced the pullout of the 260 officers and men after he turned over a day care center to officials of Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City that was constructed by soldiers from the National Capital Region Command (NCRcom).
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
Esperon directed NCRcom commander Major General Ben Mohammad Dolorfino to ensure that the soldiers are completely pulled out from the cities of Quezon, Manila, Taguig and Caloocan not later than May 11.
"We will start pulling out starting today and I have given a deadline of May 11 so that we will be out of here before the elections to remove suspicion and all attributions from groups that we are here for election purposes," said Esperon.
Militant groups filed electioneering charges against Esperon because the soldiers were allegedly harassing members and supporters of left-leaning party-list organizations running in the May 14 elections.
Esperon had stressed that the deployment had nothing to do with the elections but is part of the military's internal security operations against the communist New People's Army (NPA).
He said he would still have to evaluate if the 29 teams of soldiers would be redeployed to the 29 depressed areas in 19 barangays in the cities of Quezon, Manila, Taguig and Caloocan after the elections.
The soldiers were sent to the depressed areas in November last year primarily to prevent the communities from being infiltrated by communists. The deployment has a component medical and dental mission and engineering works.
Esperon said the pullout is not meant to preempt a decision by the Supreme Court (SC), which Bayan Muna asked last week to order the military to immediately pull out its troops so that residents of the communities would not be dissuaded from voting for perceived leftist party-list groups.
Esperon said the troops have accomplished much in terms of putting into action the civil-military training that was taught them during their six-month stay at the urban poor communities.
He also said the soldiers have also learned how to interact with the people and solve "little problems with little groups by bringing into the community the complete concept of unity and teamwork." (VR/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (May 10, 2007 issue)
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