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Sunday, May 13, 2007
More cops deployed to guard Armm elections
By Bong Garcia
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The Philippine National Police (PNP) has fielded additional three battalions of combatant policemen in the hotly contested areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), which is comprised of six provinces and a city.
Elsewhere in the country, fifty-four military units will be deployed to hotly contested areas on Monday, Election Day, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Saturday.
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Armm Police Director Joel Goltiao said the additional policemen will augment the personnel that had been deployed in the hotly contested areas in Armm.
Four provinces of the six-province-one-city autonomous region are classified as hotly contested, according to Goltiao. Armm has more than one million registered voters.
These include the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan province, Basilan, Sulu and Lanao del Sur.
Combined Marines and police forces have seized on Thursday high-powered firearms from a group of alleged political supporters in the island province of Basilan.
The firearms include an M-60 machine gun, three M-16 Armalite rifles including one with attached M-203 grenade launcher, a Garand rifle and several rounds of ammunition.
Meanwhile, Armed Forces public information officer Bartolome Bacarro said the Army and Marine personnel would be deployed in the troubled areas.
"The Comelec has issued Resolution 7913 that deputized 54 military units in the elections," said Bacarro, adding that the soldiers would be only playing a support role to the PNP.
The 54 units will be deployed in some parts of Quezon; Masbate; Sorsogon; Western Samar; Zamboanga del Sur, del Norte and Sibugay; Zamboanga City; Basilan; Tawi-Tawi; Campostella Valley; Sarrangani; Davao Oriental; Davao del Sur; Cotabato; Agusan Del Sur; Surigao del Sur; Maguindanao; Sultan Kudarat; Sulu and the two Lanao provinces.
Under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that the Department of National Defense (DND) assigned with the Comelec last year, soldiers can be deputized for the purposes of election in areas where there are strong armed threats.
"They (soldiers) are deputized (by the Comelec) for strong armed threats. They will be deployed in areas where strong armed threats have been monitored," the military official said.
Bacarro clarified that the deployment will not run against the MOA, which was initiated by the defense department to insulate the military from partisan politics during the elections.
He said the Comelec resolution deputized two infantry divisions; a joint task force; 11 infantry brigades; 29 infantry battalions; three marine brigades and 11 marine battalion landing teams.
The military units that were deputized will be deployed in the provinces where threats from New Peoples Army (NPA), private armed groups (PAGs) and lawless elements were reportedly high.
However said the soldiers will not cover the entire provinces. "Not necessarily in the entire provinces, but in certain areas in the provinces where NPA's, PAGs and lawless elements like terror groups are traditionally high," he said.
The Asia Network for Free Elections (Anfrel), in coordination with The Asia Foundation (TAF), has fielded a total of 25 observers to observe the conduct of the May 14 elections in the different areas of Armm.
They are paired with members of 12 Muslim civil society organizations and the Darul Ifta Assembly of the Philippines that recently signed a landmark memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) to uphold clean, honest, and credible elections especially in ARMM area. (With reports from VR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (May 13, 2007 issue)
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