Govt exec warns vs. NPA infiltration of brgy polls
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales yesterday warned that the government will take action against candidates in the barangay elections who are being backed by communist rebels.
Gonzales said they expect the underground New Peoples' Army (NPA) and its political wing National Democratic Front (NDF) to support candidates running for barangay captain and councilors who are members of rebel organizations or supportive to their cause.
"I will be surprised if they don't do that," Gonzales said in a press conference after he spoke in a forum of government employees here.
He said from 4-5 percent of the country's 42,000 barangays are influenced by the rebels but expect them to maximize the October 29 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to have their supporters and sympathizers elected.
"We know the barangays that they influence and those that they plan to infiltrate," said Gonzales.
He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other government agencies have a plan to address the alleged plan of the rebels but he declined to give details saying this could pre-empt their efforts.
But he said it would not be difficult. "In a barangay, the people would know who are sympathetic to the rebels."
Gonzales said the communist insurgency is the biggest peace and order threat to the coming elections.
But the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the AFP is "the biggest threat to the free and peaceful conduct of the Barangay Council and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections."
In a statement posted at the CPP website (www.philippinerevolution.net), CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal accused the AFP of seeking to control the barangay elections by "actively working to put into office candidates who will serve as their stooges."
"Democracy is completely lost in barangay and youth council elections under the present rotten, reactionary system as these are being used by the the AFP and the big reactionary political warlords for their reactionary, anti-democratic and anti-people agenda," said Rosal.
He said the AFP "desperately wants to use the local barangay and youth leaders as adjuncts in its stepped-up campaign of suppression and its drive to recruit more members for its paramilitary forces and barangay intelligence networks."