Soldiers cleared of electioneering

Soldiers from the National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM) were cleared by military investigators yesterday of allegations that they were involved in partisan political activities and harassed party-list candidates on the campaign trail.

Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, NCRCOM chief, said Lt. Col. Feliciano Loy, his command’s Staff Judge Advocate, has already forwarded his findings to the office of Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon.

"We did not see any indication, based on the words of these witnesses, that there was electioneering," he said.

Loy also furnished the Commission on Elections with the results of the investigation, he added.

Dolorfino said of the more than 100 residents interviewed, nobody had testified that the soldiers harassed party-list members or that they had engaged in electioneering.

Based on interviews with residents of communities where the soldiers were deployed, it turned out that allegations against them of engaging in partisan political activities were false, he added. – Jaime Laude