WITH exactly 18 days to go before the scheduled barangay elections, the National Police and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) met on Wednesday to step up preparations for the polls.

Director General Avelino Razon Jr., National Police chief, and Comelec acting chairman Resureccion Borra led police and poll officials in threshing out security problems for the barangay elections.

Razon said the New People’s Army (NPA) remains the biggest threat to the conduct of the polls as intelligence reports indicate that the rebels have started extorting from the candidates, either through “permit-to-campaign” or “permit-to-win” fees in areas they have significant presence.

“Sa permit to campaign, mas mababang fee lang, ang mas mataas ay ang permit-to-win fee,” he said.

For his part, Borra said the Comelec would enforce measures to prevent any failure of elections especially in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where most of the villages have been categorized under areas of immediate concern.

“To prevent the failure of elections in that area . . .  prevent command and control votes which transform to a cheated result,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Police said the abduction of a barangay captain in Compostela province by the NPA was another case of human-rights violation by the communist rebels.

Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr., National Police spokesman, said the latest insurgency-related incident in the province was also part of the strategic posturing of the rebels to regain control and influence over barangays that have been taken by the government.

“Intelligence assessments indicate a massive effort by the Communist Party of the Philippines [CPP]-NPA and their legal-front organizations to field sympathetic candidates for the forthcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled on October 29 in order for the movement to regain lost ground,” he said.

The National Police estimates that the CPP-NPA enjoys a significant mass-base support in 2,224 barangays in the country and is currently undertaking expansion efforts in 5,600 more barangays, most of which are within the areas of operation of the 95 active CPP-NPA guerilla fronts.

Last week the New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the CPP-NPA to “cease targeting civilians” and to “cease all killing of current or former comrades.”

On Sunday about 30 rebels abducted at gunpoint barangay Chairman Glorioto Mahumas in barangay Kanidkid, Montevista, Compostela Valley, before raiding an Army detachment, carting away 15 high-powered firearms.

A report from the National Police’s Human-Rights Affairs Office under Senior Supt. Lina Sarmiento said the rebels disguised themselves as soldiers from the 60th Infantry Battalion, which prompted Mahumas to welcome them in his house.

Sarmiento said the guerrillas led by a certain Ka Jazzy of Front Committee 3 of the Southern Mindanao regional committee later used the barangay official as a cover in attacking the detachment, saying they were going to surrender a rebel.

The NPA also took hostage militiaman Rudy Villaflor and Army Sgt. Raul Reyes.

The rebels later escaped toward barangay Banglasan with Mahumas, Villaflor and Reyes as hostages and human shields. Authorities said the victims are still being held by the rebels as of Wednesday.

The Philippines is facing roadblocks in committing to the proposed Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the European Union owing to its problems on extrajudicial killings, undocumented migrant workers in European states as well as perception of rampant corruption.

ACTING Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera on Wednesday ordered all state prosecutors to expedite and prioritize cases of human-rights abuses and extrajudicial killings involving members of the military and police.

THE country’s tuna fishing industry is hurting not because of price fluctuations in the world market, stiff competition from other countries or increasing costs and others, but from the extortion activities of several members of the Maritime Police and the Coast Guard who are deployed on the seas off General Santos City, the country’s tuna capital, to protect them from pirates.

THE shutdown of the sanitary landfill in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal, was triggered by political squabble between the town mayor and the governor and “other reasons.”

Forty alleged participants in the foiled February 2006 coup attempt are in limbo as the Army does not know yet what to do with them.

WITH exactly 18 days to go before the scheduled barangay elections, the National Police and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) met on Wednesday to step up preparations for the polls.