No order from Duterte to assist any candidate, Año says
By Chito Chavez
President Duterte has not issued any order to help any candidate, particularly the presidential aspirants, in the May 9 polls elections, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said on Thursday, April 7.
“For your alluding that somebody higher up will tell the uniformed troops to give favor to this or to that or provide assistance to this, if you are referring to the President or somebody in Malacañang, I will say to you frankly, there is no such order. The President has said over and over that he is not going to endorse any presidential candidate,” Año insisted during a press briefing.
Año added that the President’s main order is to ensure that the parties involved in the electoral process are safe, specifically the voters.
“We had a joint AFP-PNP (Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police) command conference presided by the President. Isa lang palagi ang sinasabi niya, (He always keeps telling only one thing) I want to have a peaceful, clean, orderly, honest election. Gusto niya kung sino yung iboboto ng mga tao (He wants who the people will vote for) we must have a clean, honest, orderly election. We will not be partisan. We will ensure that the people are able to cast their vote and we will protect the sanctity of the ballot. So that's the standing order and we are ready to prosecute anyone within the department or within the uniformed services under the DILG to go after any violator or anyone who will play politics. That's our assurance to the public and we will do our job properly,” Año stressed.
The DILG chief added “we must have a clean, honest, orderly election. We will not be partisan. We will ensure that the people are able to cast their vote and we will protect the sanctity of the ballot.’’
With this explanation, Año stressed that with the President’s stand the DILG is ready to prosecute anyone in the department or within the uniformed service under its command and “to go after any violator or anyone who will play politics.’’
“Yan ang assurance namin sa public (That is our assurance to the public) and we will do our job properly,’’ he added. (Chito A. Chavez)