Military releases poll guidelines in wake of Golez threat

Candidates for local and national positions have been prohibited from entering military camps if they have no official business. Likewise, civilian employees of the Armed Forces have also been disallowed from endorsing or campaigning for any candidate. This was according to a set of election guidelines the military released after its recent run-in with Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, who is seeking re-election in the May 10 elections. According to the two-page guidelines, commanders should "prohibit the entry inside camps of any political candidate and members of parties, party-list groups, organizations or coalitions thereof without distinction, except for official businesses." Candidates are also banned from using facilities inside the camps such as multi-purpose halls, grandstands, and village halls as venues for their political activities.. This also means candidates are disallowed from campaigning in civilian communities — mostly composed of families of soldiers — inside military camps. "While it is the right of our personnel and dependents to be apprised on the issues that would guide them in the exercise of their right to suffrage, access of political parties to military camps for purposes of campaigning and other political activities as expressly disallowed by the law," the guidelines said. "Also, engaging in election campaign or partisan political activities by [Armed Forces] personnel are prohibited under the 1987 Constitution," it added. The set of guidelines was dated March 12 but was only made public on Sunday, or four days after Golez threatened to sue the commander of Camp Aguinaldo, Brig. Gen. Felipe Tabas, for preventing him from entering the camp. Military policemen in Camp Aguinaldo, the main headquarters of the Philippine military, barred Golez from entering the camp last Thursday because his vehicle was bearing the campaign sticker of opposition presidential bet Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III. As a result, Golez missed a memorial service for his late mother inside the camp. Golez is a former Navy captain and the elder brother of Navy chief Vice Admiral Ferdinand Golez. Golez said such "medieval action" by the military violates his right to express his political preference. — KBK/NPA, GMANews.TV