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Mayuga report: Soldiers told to back anti-communist party-list group in '04


A ranking military officer had ordered his subordinates to “ensure the victory" of an anti-communist party-list group during the 2004 elections when they were deputized to perform poll duties, the recently released Mayuga report said. Lt. Col. Elmer Logronio, operations officer of a Marine battalion deployed in the Lanao provinces, said in the report that Col. Rey Ardo, then military operations chief, also helped in the information dissemination regarding the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) group. “[The directives were to] distribute ang leaflets and information sa ANAD and to make sure na mananalo ang ANAD," Logronio said during his testimony before the Mayuga panel, as recorded in the transcripts attached to the report. Logronio likewise said that Ardo “presented" ANAD to mayors and election officers from Mindanao during a conference in April 2004. He also said he has “a strong feeling that the election was manipulated at the higher levels" in 2004. Another military officer deployed in Mindanao, Lt. Col. Ronald Villanueva, said in the report that Col. Ardo gave him an “additional assignment to help ANAD" during the 2004 elections. ANAD lost in 2004 but eventually won congressional seats during the 2007 and 2010 elections. President Benigno Aquino III ordered two weeks ago the release of the Mayuga report, which details the military’s investigation on claims that some of its ranking officers participated in the alleged rigging of the 2004 elections to favor then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The report was prepared by former Navy Flag Officer-in-Command Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, who headed the panel that looked into the allegations of the military’s involvement in electoral fraud. Nothing wrong Incumbent ANAD party-list Rep. Pastor Alcover, meanwhile, said there is nothing wrong if individual members of the military chose to support his group during the 2004 elections. “That is part of their freedom. We are in a democracy. They [the soldiers] have a choice," he said in a phone interview on Monday afternoon. He also said military officials cannot be held liable for “sympathizing" with his group’s anti-communist sentiments. Alcover, who admitted that he has yet to read the Mayuga report, said support for ANAD becomes “illegal" if a military official issues a memorandum directing his troops to campaign for a party-list group. “Mali kung ‘yung entire military organization ay may memo to support ANAD… Wala namang memo," he said. The ANAD party-list describes itself as an organization of “peace-loving, pro-democracy and pro-government Filipinos." Graft, electioneering Bayan Muna party-list Reps. Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares, however, said that Ardo and other military officers should be charged with graft and electioneering for directing troops to support ANAD party-list The sectoral lawmakers said the military officials violated provisions of the Anti-Graft Law and the Omnibus Election Code for “ordering or even requesting AFP personnel to involve in partisan political activity." They likewise appealed to authorities “to pursue the questions that Mayuga failed to ask" on the alleged rigging of the 2004 polls. “The disinterest of Mayuga in investigating deeper into AFP personnel involved in campaigning for or against party list candidates again puts into question whether the Mayuga investigation was merely for show rather than a serious investigation into military involvement in electoral fraud and partisan political activity," Casiño said in a statement Monday. The Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice are set to hold a joint investigation on supposed anomalies during the 2004 and 2007 elections to determine authorities liable for the alleged fraud. — KBK, GMA News

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