Arroyo orders more protection for poll bets

President Arroyo ordered yesterday the Armed Forces to help the police protect candidates in the May 10 elections from kidnapping or assassination by the New People’s Army (NPA).

"These abductions of local candidates by the NPA are condemnable," she said in a statement from Malacañang. "They are acts of terrorism that shall be dealt with accordingly. I am directing the (Armed Forces) to back up the (Philippine National Police) in securing local candidates under threat and to see to it that this travesty of democracy does not go unpunished."

Mrs. Arroyo has condemned the NPA’s kidnapping of Jiabong, Western Samar Mayor Nenita Gabriela and her staff while campaigning in a rebel stronghold in her province.

Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, Armed Forces public information chief, said the military is becoming worried over the repeated NPA attacks on candidates since the filing of certificates of candidacy started last Dec. 7 and the subsequent campaign period.

"We are hoping for the best, but we are expecting the worst," he said. "I would like to stress that we are prepared, you know, to face any kind of security situation."

Lucero said the military foresees "some degree of conflict" and other forms of violence after the May 10 elections. — Marichu Villanueva, Jaime Laude, AFP