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AFP promises clean polls to foreign military attachés


Foreign military attachés are confident that the Philippine military will be able to help the country pull its first ever nationwide automated elections on Monday, May 10. Captain Victor S. Jones, Australian defense attaché, said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has assured the members of the Foreign Armed Forces Attachés (FAFA) that it would be “fully supportive of the democratic processes." The Philippine military has been implicated in the alleged irregularities in the 2004 elections that supposedly benefited President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. For this year, alarm bells rang when she appointed members of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class of 1978 to key military positions. Critics of the administration suspect that President Arroyo, an honorary member of PMA class of 1978, will establish a junta if case the elections fail to ensure her stay in power. Jones’ statement, meanwhile, was echoed by Col. Anthony Senci, dean of the FAFA corps of the US, saying he hopes to see the will of the Filipino people reflected in the results of Monday’s polls. “We look forward to free and fair elections and the Philippine people expressing their democratic will during the process," he said. Jones said the Philippine military had told them that it already has standby troops in strategic locations in the country to provide security backup on May 10. “It’s been a very enlightening briefing that we’ve got on how the Armed Forces of the Philippines is setup… to ensure that they are able to respond appropriately in areas that require support from the security perspective for the elections that are going to be held," Jones said. - KBK, GMANews.TV

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