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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
ELECTION on the island province
of Sulu will go on despite continued military offensives against
Islamic extremist groups hiding on the island, the defense chief
said Monday.
Defense Secretary Hermogenes
Ebdane Jr. said it would be up for the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
to decide on whether election in Sulu should push through.
“The Comelec mentioned that
Sulu is a problem area . . . but its up for the commission because
there’s a memorandum,” Ebdane told reporters in a chance
interview in Camp Aguinaldo.
He was referring to a memorandum
signed by the Comelec with former defense secretary Avelino Cruz
Jr., which limits the military’s role in the coming election.
Ebdane, a former police chief,
said they will not recommend to the Comelec to postpone the election
in Sulu, where military operation have been intensified following
the beheading of seven Abu Sayyaf (ASG) victims.
“No . . . what we are saying
here is that if the Comelec says we do it . . . then we do it, but I
have been asking them that it must be covered by a resolution,”
said Ebdane.
He also said that troops in Sulu
wouldn’t be pulled out, noting the present situation in the
province, where government troops have been running after the ASG.
Late last week the Abu Sayyaf
beheaded the seven workers from a government construction project
whom they abducted on April 15 from a remote village on the island.
The beheading was apparently in
reprisal for the death of their commanders, which include ASG
chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and Jainal Antel Sali Jr., alias Abu
Solaiman.
More than 8, 000 have been
deployed in Sulu since the military launched “Oplan Ultimatum”
last year that aims to capture of neutralize top local and foreign
Islamic militants hiding on the island.
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