The United Opposition (UNO) has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to put safeguards in the proposed agreement with the Department of National Defense (DND) giving the military a more active role in the coming elections.

UNO president and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said the Comelec must ensure that incidences of vote padding and poll fraud involving high-ranking military officials must not happen again.

Binay cited the “Hello Garci” tape that documented the alleged conversation between former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and government officials, including President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, during the 2004 elections. In the same tape, the names of some high-ranking officers of the Armed Forces were mentioned.

“When the ‘Hello Garci’ scandal erupted in 2005, the names of some loyalist generals were mentioned as being involved in altering the votes in favor of Mrs. Arroyo. This must not happen again,” Binay said.

Although Binay is confident that a majority of the uniformed personnel are loyal to the Constitution and the people, he said the Comelec should make safeguards against those with misguided principles.

“Being a reservist, I can say that an overwhelming number of our soldiers are professional soldiers.

Their loyalty is to the Constitution and to the sanctity of the ballot. But we cannot allow a few officers with misguided loyalties smear the reputation of the military as a reputation and insult the dignity of the soldier,” he added.

Binay said should it push through, the agreement between the DND and Comelec must contain strict guidelines to be followed by the AFP during the elections. More important, he said, is the strict enforcement of the terms of the agreement and its monitoring.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Victor Ibrado said the military should be the last to be given the task of securing politicians during elections.

Reacting to the proposed Comelec resolution allowing detailing of at least two soldiers to safeguard a candidate during election, Ibrado said the military should be the last resort as far as providing security to politicians is concerned.

But Ibrado said the military would have to obey orders if the DND and Comelec would agree to the resolution.

Still, he warned that soldiers who will engage in partisan politics will be dealt with appropriately.
Earlier, Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit said he does not like the use of soldiers to guard candidates during elections.

Bangit said the military should concentrate on the problem of private armed groups who will try to destroy the peaceful conduct of elections.

The Army chief added securing candidates during the elections should be left to the police and authorized private security guards.

Asked to comment on Bangit’s statement, Ibrado said, “I think he is not comfortable because the armed forces has a lot of tasks. Our mandate is (internal security operations) and we will still be involved in the election, in the protection of the candidates. As I said the priority should be the police and if there is really a serious, probably a serious case of security as far as the other candidates are concerned, then maybe we can come in but maybe on a case to case basis.”