Robredo slams Duterte’s threat to use military in elections

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo slammed yesterday President Duterte’s threat that he might be forced to call in the military to ensure a peaceful conduct of the 2022 elections, saying the institution should not be used to scare the people.

Dutere warned on Friday that if needed, military force would be used to ensure that the elections next year will be peaceful, free and fair.

Robredo noted that the soldiers help maintain peace and order but the military may not always be needed to enforce every policy of the government, and it is wrong to use them as scare tactic.

“The military will always be there to help, not only during the elections, but at all times they are needed to maintain peace and order. They are there. What’s puzzling is the tone that seems to want to use the military to scare (the people),” Robredo said in Filipino during her weekly radio program.

“When it’s the elections they (the military) really help to maintain peace and order, because there really are many places where problems occur, but hopefully, let’s not use the institution to strike fear. Because, for me, when I saw that, I felt: ‘what is that?’ That again. Every time we want to enforce a policy, we use the military,” she said.

Duterte said he could call the military anytime to see to it that people are protected and elections are free and orderly.

The President accepted the ruling PDP-Laban party’s nomination for him to run as vice president next year as he expressed his desire to see the “continuity” of his efforts as the country’s leader.

Zero-waste policy

Various environmental groups, led by the EcoWaste Coalition, have urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to adopt a policy that would compel candidates and other stakeholders to observe a zero-waste conduct of the 2022 elections.

In a letter sent to the office of Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas last Friday, EcoWaste and other environmental groups said the poll body must “proactively integrate waste and toxic prevention in the conduct of the upcoming elections.”

“Considering the problems already plaguing our society due to garbage, plastic pollution, climate change and COVID-19, we urge the Comelec to champion much needed policies and practices that will protect our fragile environment from being further degraded by the avalanche of partisan political activities leading to the 2022 elections,” the letter, written by EcoWaste Coalition president Eileen Sison, read.

Aside from EcoWaste, signatories to the letter include Greenpeace Philippines, Mother Earth Foundation, Zero Waste Philippines, Cavite Green Coalition, Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability, Oceana Philippines, Caritas Philippines, Urban Poor Associates and several community-based organizations.

The groups lamented the widespread disregard of environmental rules and regulations in past elections such as the unrestrained plastering of campaign posters outside Comelec-designated areas including on trees, electric posts and walls; display of “indirect” political propaganda such as graduation and fiesta banners and tarpaulins; unregulated noise during campaign meetings; unchecked distribution and littering of sample ballots on election day; and the open burning of campaign waste materials, which is prohibited under the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

“We have also observed the rampant use of campaign materials that are hardly reused or recycled, particularly plastic tarpaulins, posters and buntings, as well as the confetti thrown in the miting de avance,” the groups added.

The groups specifically urged the Comelec to consider adopting a resolution declaring a “zero waste” policy during the campaign period and election day. – Elizabeth Marcelo, Mayen Jaymalin