DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 08 Mar) – The party list group Kabataan on Thursday accused the Philippine military of political partisan, saying, soldiers were campaigning for government candidates for the May elections.
It urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to investigate the reports and file charges against those involved in the illegal activities.
Troops were also reported to have been actively campaigning against opposition and progressive groups, including party lists the military claimed are fronts of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army rebels.
Kabataan party list president Raymond Palatino said reports of military campaigning for administration bets and allied party list groups can be used as grounds for the disqualification of administration candidates for using government machinery, including the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), AFP and even the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).
"The military is not only campaigning against progressive party list groups and opposition candidates who are critical of the government in these forums, they are also asking students to vote for administration bets and party list groups that are identified with the government."
"This gives the administration party candidates and their ally undue advantage over other candidates, with the AFP serving as virtual campaign machinery for the administration," Palatino said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
He said members of his group and student representatives from youth election watchdog Youth VOTE (Youth Volunteers for Orderly and Transparent Elections), trooped Thursday to the COMELEC main office in Manila and submitted evidence of military deployment and electioneering in some universities in the Philippine capital.
The students presented photographs of troops stationed inside the Philippine Normal University and video of a recent election forum sponsored by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) held there.It was not immediately known whether the COMELEC would investigate the allegations or not. (Mindanao Examiner)
No comments:
Post a Comment