Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said Tuesday there are at least 132 private armed groups throughout the country which the government is seeking to dismantle, and more than one million loose firearms that need to be accounted for.

Gonzales said if left unchecked, these PAGs will have a big impact on the 2010 that could “subvert the true will of our people.”

Meanwhile, top officials of the Defense Department, along with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) agreed during dialogue that the military will be at the “full disposal of the Commission on Elections to safeguard the sanctity of the 2010 elections.”

Gonzales, the AFP officers and Comelec commissioners led by Chairman Jose Melo, also agreed to work out the details of the cooperation, particularly the role that AFP would play in the forthcoming elections.

Gonzales said the military is needed to check armed groups and goons, which have tremendous negative impact on elections in the country. He pointed out that the Maguindanao tragedy has put this major problem of the country into perspective.

Of the one million loose firearms in the country, less than 200,000 are in the hands of all rebel groups combined, Gonzales said.

Gonzales noted that there has been a pattern of daily political killings in the country even before the election season. “This is linked to the issue of loose firearms,” he said even as he added that the country’s intelligence sector is monitoring heavy purchase of weapons by local politicians.

Gonzales said he is concerned that the firearms acquisition is happening even in provinces previously not known for armed goons and warlords.

“We committed the full support of the AFP to the Comelec and we are happy that the military’s offer was fully appreciated by the Comelec. Chairman Melo said Comelec needed an environment that would allow the agency to do its work, and we assured him the military was very willing to provide them that,” Gonzales said, following a closed-door dialogue.