Army closely monitors Antique as start of local campaign nears

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 3): Army closely monitors Antique as start of local campaign nears

The 82nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, which covers Antique, is now closely monitoring the area with the start of the local elections campaign period on March 26.

LTC Enriqueto R. Deocadez, Jr., 82nd Infantry Battalion Commander of the Philippine Army that is under the 3rd Infantry Division, said that right now Antique is experiencing a peaceful environment as compared with other provinces.

He, however, said that there are sightings of insurgents or spill over from Iloilo to the hinterlands of Sibalom and San Remigio towns which they are closely monitoring and subject of their sustained operations.

”There is still nothing to worry about though,” Deocadez said in an interview.

He said that they have not yet monitored extortion cases on candidates by the insurgent groups.

This was also confirmed by Major Rey Tiongson, chief of the 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs Office, in a separate interview. He said that so far, there are still no candidates who have reported being extorted, but that could be because the local campaign period has not yet started.

Tiongson then appealed to candidates and the civil society to immediately report to the Army or the police any extortion incident. “Our troops in the field are continuously monitoring to prevent lawless armed groups to undertake extortion activities,” he said.

Tiongson said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines with the Philippine National Police are ready to provide necessary security if needed by the candidates.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=862801