Gov’t using military as campaign machinery
The Kabataan Partylist today called on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to actively pursue investigations over military campaigning and deployment in schools in Metro Manila and study the possible liability of the administration party.
Members of Kabataan Partylist, together with student representatives from ‘militarized,’ and youth election watchdog Youth VOTE (Youth Volunteers for Orderly and Transparent Elections) went to COMELEC main office this morning to submit evidences of military deployment and electioneering in some universities in Manila. Among the evidences were pictures of military troops stationed inside the Philippine Normal University and a video of the recent election forum sponsored by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the university.
Kabataan Partylist president Raymond Palatino said reports of military campaigning for administration bets and allied partylist groups can be used as grounds for the disqualification of administration candidates for using government machinery, including the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), AFP and even the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).
Palatino added that the AFP was able to conduct election forum in schools with the help CHED, while local ROTC units and National Service Training Program (NSTP) in schools were in charge of ensuring student attendance. He said attendance is made mandatory for students who are currently enrolled in these programs.
“The military is not only campaigning against progressive partylist groups and opposition candidates who are critical of the government in these forums. They are also asking students to vote for administration bets and partylist groups that are identified with the government.”
“This gives the administration party and its allies undue advantage over other candidates, with the AFP serving as a virtual campaign machinery for the administration,” he pointed out.
Palatino also expressed fears that military presence and electioneering in vote-rich areas in Metro Manila could adversely affect the result of the 2007 elections.
“Voters might be strained to vote for candidates supported by the military out of fear or outright coercion. What we’ll be having is another set of election victors whose legitimacy is questionable similar to the last presidential elections.”
‘Dress down’ order not enough
Meanwhile, Palatino said the recent government order for military troops deployed in Metro Manila to ‘dress down’ is not enough and could possibly lead to more harassment against members of progressive partylist groups and local residents.
“This will only encourage the presence of more military and intelligence operatives in plain clothes. The military has long been using this strategy of deploying intelligence agents in ‘civilian’ clothes in rallies and areas where there are large concentrations of members of progressive groups.”
“It will also be harder for residents to get the identity of these military elements should these operatives commit human rights abuses or harassment in their areas of responsibility.”
“We reiterate our call for the complete and immediate pullout of troops in schools and communities in Metro Manila and for the AFP to keep its hand off in this elections.”
