‘AFP won’t be dragged into poll scandals again’ -- spokesman

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:22pm (Mla time) 01/15/2007

MANILA -- THE military on Monday said the memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would ensure it is not dragged again into election controversies during the May polls.

Speaking on the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy for national positions, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said with the MoA limiting the role of soldiers to responding to “serious armed threats,” the vote-rigging scandal that rocked the military during the 2004 elections.

“I believe the AFP will not be involved in partisan political exercises,” Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo. “We have a memorandum of agreement, between the AFP, DND [Department of National Defense], and Comelec, limiting the role of the AFP to security.”

Unlike in 2004, soldiers will no longer transport election paraphernalia and military camps will not be used as polling precincts, Bacarro said.

In 2004, four senior military officials, including the incumbent Chief of Staff, General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., were implicated in alleged cheating operations after they were mentioned in purported wiretapped phone conversations between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

An internal investigation cleared Esperon, ex-Southern Command chiefs Lieutenant General Roy Kyamko and Major General Gabriel Habacon, and ex-First Marine Brigade chief Brigadier General Francisco Gudani, but its findings were never fully disclosed to the public.

Esperon is the last of the so-called “Hello Garci” generals in active service.

Referring to the 2004 election fraud scandal allegedly involving the military, Bacarro said: “These remain as allegations.”

Meanwhile, the military has started receiving complaints from prospective candidates in the May elections that the communist New People’s Army (NPA) has been charging them for permits to campaign (PTC), Bacarro said.

Bacarro refused to identify the politicians who have been approached by the NPA. He said the PTC costs roughly P30,000 but it could vary depending on the position being sought by the candidate.

“That is extortion…We have received reports that the NPA has been using the Internet and text,” the spokesman said.

Bacarro said the NPA collected a “sizeable amount” from PTCs in 2004, likely in the “millions.”

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