The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced Tuesday, March 15, that is has already started its preparations to secure the national and local elections which will take place two months from now.
Colonel Jorry Baclor, chief of AFP public affairs office, said the military is planning to deploy personnel who are not involved in combat missions to assist the government in the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 9 polls.
“Based on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution Nr. 10470, the AFP is among the deputized agencies and instrumentalities of the government that are tasked to ensure free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections,” Baclor said in a statement.
Military personnel performing non-combat missions will be tapped to carry out election duties “to allow the AFP to focus on its primary mission to defeat local armed threats.”
Baclor said that among the election duties of assigned military personnel include the provision of security to polling precincts, voting centers, canvassing centers, and election paraphernalia.
Military personnel can also act as security personnel to authorized Comelec representatives, he added.
“The AFP can also make available land, air, and water-craft assets, communication systems, and other equipment to support the logistical requirements of Comelec, especially in remote areas,” Baclor noted.
But military personnel who will be assigned in election duties are prohibited to act as bodyguards for the candidates.
Accordingly, the military has been coordinating with other law enforcement agencies to monitor any security threat related to the elections, and prevent any armed group organized to commit acts of terrorism against the public to influence their votes.
Despite the additional job of securing the elections, the AFP official assured the public that the military will continue all of its internal security operations to meet President Duterte’s directive to defeat communist insurgents and other local threats before he steps out of office in June.
Last month, the AFP adopted Joint Letter Directive No. 01-2022, a joint legal cooperation mechanism with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), to enhance coordination among concerned agencies in building-up cases, investigating, and prosecuting leaders, members, and supporters of threat groups and their financers.