MANILA, Philippines?The Department of National Defense (DND) is working on an agreement with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that will provide the military a more active role in the 2010 elections.

Acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said the new memorandum of agreement (MOA) would allow the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to meet the challenge ?head on? instead of ?shying away? from its responsibility during elections.

?We will show that the AFP is the true protector of democracy and our people?s will. We will prove the detractors of our soldiers wrong,? Gonzales said in a statement.

He said a technical working group was studying and working on the details of the agreement that would replace an accord signed in 2006 between the Comelec and the AFP.

The old memorandum of agreement limited the involvement of the military in the country?s electoral processes to merely providing security to an area, operating checkpoints and enforcing the gun ban during the election season.

It banned the AFP from acting as security escorts of a candidate, participating in the canvassing of votes and transporting ballot boxes, among other things.

Expanded role

But a recent Comelec resolution apparently expanded the AFP role in the 2010 elections, allowing soldiers and police personnel to provide a maximum of two bodyguards to each candidate who should apply for security assistance during the election season.

In an earlier interview, the AFP spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., said the job was relatively new to the military ?so we will strictly adhere to the implementing guidelines, especially when we apply this in Mindanao.?

Brawner said the arrangement would be one solution to the existence of private or partisan armed groups across the country.

Full disposal

Gonzales said Sunday that the new agreement would redefine the role of the AFP during elections, placing it at the ?full disposal? of the Comelec to curb private armies and prevent a repeat of the Nov. 23 massacre that killed 57 people in Maguindanao.

Citing intelligence reports of supposed heavy purchase of weapons by local politicians in view of the coming elections, Gonzales said at least 132 private armed groups were operating across the country with about one million loose firearms.

?Hello Garci? scandal

?The new MOA is also intended to help prevent a repeat of the issues that resulted from the 2004 and 2007 elections,? he said, apparently referring to the ?Hello Garci? scandal which tainted the image of the AFP.

Several ranking officials were mentioned in a taped conversation between former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, suggesting that the latter had cheated in the 2004 elections. Ms Arroyo has denied the allegations.

In the taped conversation, some military officials in Mindanao were mentioned in connection with giving Ms Arroyo a one-million vote margin over her nearest rival. Elections at the time were held at military camps in certain parts of Mindanao.