KIKO OPPOSES MILITARIZATION

Senate Majority Leader and independent re-electionist candidate Kiko Pangilinan today rebuffed the call of Malacañang for the Armed Forces to augment the local police force in an effort to stop election-related violence.

"Militarization of election hotspots would not be able to appropriately address the problem of election violence. In fact, it may even cause further problems because militarizing these areas might send a wrong message, if not a chilling effect, to the residents," Kiko said.

"Instead of simply commissioning the military and the police force to patrol election hotspots, the COMELEC should be more proactive and should go out of their way to visit these areas and avert incidents of election-related deaths and violence," Kiko added.

"We should demilitarize the election process. We should keep in mind that the alleged cheating in the 2004 election imputed the military and many of its officials as operatives of whole-sale cheating," Kiko ended, citing the "Hello, Garci" scandal in 2005.