Don’t give in to NPA demands, AFP tells election candidates

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has reminded those who will run in the next year’s elections not to give in to the extortion demands of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“They should not give in to the NPA demands. It will just give them more money to fuel more violence,” AFP public affairs chief Col. Noel Detoyato said on Tuesday.

The hotspot areas for next year’s national elections have yet to be identified.

“In every election period, we conduct area security. We do close coordination with the authorities, police or military,” Detoyato said.

There are still about 4,000 communist rebels and most of them are in eastern Mindanao.

Extortion had been a rampant activity of the communist rebels and Detoyato said they might take advantage of the upcoming elections.

“They cannot influence the results but they can conduct their activities to terrorize the voters, to terrorize the candidates. Tatakutin nila to give in to their demands, so kailangang kailangan palagi diyan is the right information at the right time so we can make proper actions,” the military public affairs chief said.

The military leadership would hold a command conference at Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday and the upcoming elections would be one of the agenda, Detoyato said. Frances Mangosing/RC