By Teofilo Garcia, Jr/Philippine News Agency
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Thirteen military officers participated in the local absentee voting held Tuesday in Camp Don Basilio Navarro that houses the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) headquarters in this city.
Col. Gerry Besana, Westmincom information officer, said Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega, Westmincom chief, led the group of officers and enlisted personnel who took part in the absentee voting.
Besana said the other key officers who joined dela Vega were were Brig. Gen. Cirilo Thomas Donato, Westmincom deputy commander for administration; Brig. Gen. Generoso Ponio, deputy commander for operations; Col. Leonardo Peña, the chief of Unified Command Staff; and, other officers.
Several enlisted personnel of Westmincom also participated in the absentee voting activity.
“We are glad for one, we are able to cast our votes, we are able to exercise our right to suffrage and that is the only part of the election period when we are able to practice partisanship,” dela Vega said.
“More than the casting of votes, our main objective is to ensure that the coming elections on May 13 would be a peaceful, orderly and credible one,” he added.
Dela Vega said that Westmincom, through all of its Joint Task Forces, is “up and running as far as the preparation for the upcoming election is concerned.”
“But we also maintain a very high level of preparedness and readiness in the conduct of military operations in our area of responsibility,” he added.
According to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the local absentee voting may be availed by government officials and employees, members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippine and media practitioners who are registered voters but will not be able to vote on Election Day due to the performance of their functions.
The local absentee voting started on April 29 and will be conducted until 5:00 p.m. of May 1.
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