Before he steps down from Malacanang, President Rodrigo Duterte wants to leave office with “clean” national and local elections next year, especially in his home region, he said in a taped address Monday night.
“What I want, before I leave, is for Filipinos to have a taste of a clean election, especially in Mindanao. I am appealing to the leaders, to all the tribes,” he added in his regular weekly TV address.
Duterte also appealed to would-be candidates to keep the conduct of the May 2022 polls peaceful.
He also warned communist rebels and warlords that he will use military and police force should they interfere in the coming national elections.
Duterte said he would not allow the New People’s Army (NPA) to influence the elections.
“I will not allow fraud, especially those warlords with arms. If that’s what you’ll do, including you, the NPA, do not meddle. You’re fighting for a cause that is a losing one,” the President said.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said almost 8 million people have submitted their applications to become voters in next year’s elections.
“As of Sept. 25, the number of applications filed totaled 7,994,821,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said in a press briefing during the fifth day of the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for national positions at the Sofitel Harbor Garden Tent in Pasay City.
The number is almost double the poll body’s target of 4 million new registrants for next year’s polls.
Voter registration is currently suspended, to give way to the eight-day COC filing period for aspirants to national and local positions.
Registration will resume on Oct. 11 and will run until Oct. 30 in all Offices of Election Officer and satellite registration sites from Mondays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Comelec extended the original Sept. 30 voter registration deadline in response to calls from various sectors and the public to enable more Filipinos to vote in next year’s polls.
Voter registration activities in areas under an enhanced community quarantine and modified ECQ were also suspended to curb the spread of COVID.
Also on Tuesday, Senator Panfilo Lacson — who is also running for President in 2022 — questioned a supposed “global coalition” in the Philippine National Police (PNP), saying it could be used for partisan politics.
Lacson asked what was the purpose of the “Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Groups and Force Multipliers,” which was launched on June 25.
“The last time I heard, the PNP is a territorial force. It is supposed to address internal threats. Why do they have a ‘global coalition’? Why the need for a force multiplier which is global? The OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) seem to be the target here,” he said during a hearing on the 2022 budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which supervises the PNP.
“I’ll be blunt. This looks like a tool for politicking by the PNP’s community relations arm,” said Lacson, who is running for president next year.
Some months ago, Lacson said Police Maj. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, then the director of the PNP Police Community Relations unit, had much explaining to do about his involvement in activities to gather data including email addresses and phone numbers.
He added that Sermonia had already been “lambasted” by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. for campaigning in the 2019 midterm elections using the resources of Philippine embassies.
Lacson, who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001, questioned in particular why the PNP would look for force multipliers abroad such as in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong — when the PNP’s mandate is only to address internal threats. “What gives?” he asked.
The senator said he was not convinced with the “assurance” of PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar that this activity of the PNP to engage with the public will not be used for political purposes.
“The nomenclature itself suggests otherwise,” Lacson said.
“You are looking for members in areas with many OFWs. How can they help enhance the anti-criminality campaign of the PNP that is supposed to address internal threats? I cannot reconcile this,” he said.
Lacson also questioned the use of other government agencies for partisan politics, including a recent social media attack on him.
He said that when he questioned earlier the propriety of the “Global Coalition,” he was attacked last Sept. 20 on the official Facebook and Twitter accounts of the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), particularly the office of Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy.
The attacks, which were taken down, quoted ex-NPA cadre Jeffrey Celiz.
“If that is not politicking, I don’t know what is,” Lacson said.
