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IT is
not only the crooked Commission on Elections (Comelec)
personnel who assure candidates victory in the polls for
a fee.
Even
communist guerrillas have joined the anomalous activity
as they reportedly guarantee victory for candidates in
areas where the New People’s Army (NPA) is strong for
substantial fees.
Deputy
Director General Avelino Razon Jr., National Police
deputy chief for administration, said the NPA is
employing a new scheme guaranteeing candidates of “sure
win” if they pay a certain amount.
Citing
intelligence reports, Razon said the new modus operandi
involves terrorizing voters, elections officers and poll
watchers to make sure that those candidates who availed
of the NPA’s services will win.
Razon
said that this is tantamount to using the guerrillas as
a private army and the National Police is keeping a
tight watch on candidates who may avail of this scheme
so that it can report them to the Comelec for action.
This he
said is ground for disqualification.
This
developed as the National Police identified nine
provinces in the country as “election areas of concern”
or hot spots.
Chief
Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the National Police
public information office and concurrent spokesman, said
the identification of hot spots will serve in
operational planning such as deployment of security
forces, structuring of local police units, and
availability of resources.
“This
initial assessment of the prevailing situation in these
election areas of concern is still subject to further
validation,” Pagdilao clarified.
He said
this categorization does not necessarily reflect the
projected outcome of the May 2007 national and local
elections.
“We
recorded almost similar if not higher number of election
areas of concern in previous elections, but, this did
not affect the generally peaceful and relatively good
turnout at the polls,” Pagdilao said.
The
initial list of nine provinces was generated based on
several parameters were classified as:
•
Category 1—areas with a history of election-related
violent incidents, where there is intense political
rivalry between contending parties and where partisan
armed groups operate.
•
Category 2— areas that are seriously threatened by rebel
groups like the NPA, southern Philippines separatist
groups and other similar armed organizations. The degree
of affectation and capability of threat groups in these
areas are points of consideration.
The nine
provinces listed as hot spots are Cagayan, Isabela, Abra,
Nueva Ecija, Masbate, Western Samar, Lanao del Sur, Sulu,
and Basilan. |
