DAVAO CITY — The election body in the Autonomous Region in Mindanao (ARMM) assured Tuesday that efforts are being done to protect voters as well as election volunteers during the country’s first automated elections this May.

“The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is deputized by the Comelec to protect the people during and after the elections,” said Maceda Lidasan, provincial election officer of ARMM, during the 3rd Election Security Summit at the Grand Regal Hotel in this city.

Meanwhile, the Army has also expressed confidence that there would be no failure of elections in ARMM.

“No. There are so many soldiers that people are starting to get out of their homes because they have felt the security in the number of forces that are being deployed in Maguindanao,” said Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesperson of the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command.

While the Comelec is gearing up for the national elections, Cabangbang said the military is serious in its quest of dismantling partisan armed groups that could dampen the success of the elections in ARMM.

To date, the military has detected at least 42 private armies in Maguindanao and another two in Cotabato City.

The ARMM Comelec and the military attended the election security summit which gathered 36 non-government, civil society, peoples’ and sectoral organizations and other electoral reform advocates in five provinces in ARMM under the Canadian government-funded coalition named ‘Citizens CARE’.

In a report by Citizens CARE in Cotabato City, Beverly Hagrdon-Thakur, Chief of Party of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems Philippines, said the coalition has gained ground as the country’s most credible watchdog.

“We are confident to say that it is safe in Maguindanao because AFP is securing the area,” Lidasan said.