Eastmincom on alert vs. possible NPA interference in polls

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 16): Eastmincom on alert vs. possible NPA interference in polls

To prevent the New People's Army (NPA) from influencing the outcome of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls on May 14, all Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) units will be on active footing especially in areas where the rebel activities are rampant.

This was emphasized by Eastmincom head Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal when sought for a comment on how to prevent the NPAs from interfering in the coming polls.

"Ang mga ano naman natin (troops) active (naman sila) lalo na dun sa mga areas na nandun (ang NPA), nandun naman mga tao natin, hanggang sa ngayon tuluy-tuloy naman ang operation natin (Our troops are active especially in areas where there are NPA. Our people are there. Until now, our operations are ongoing)," he added.

The Eastmincom is the military command tasked to secure Eastern and Northern Mindanao from external and internal threats.

But Madrigal stressed that they are still to detect any plans of the NPAs to campaign for any particular candidates.

"So far wala pa naman (there is none), wala pa akong na-monitor na (threat), kasi ngayon pa lang nag-uumpisa yung ano ng campaign (I haven't monitored any threats yet because we just started the campaign), we will see, titingnan natin yan (we will look into that) in the next few days," he added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1032038