AFP disowns intel on China poll sabotage

The Philippine military on Thursday said it knew nothing about an election official’s claim that China might sabotage the 2016 Philippine elections, and would not be drawn into the controversy.

Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla said the AFP had no report on the allegation by Election Commissioner Christian Robert Lim about the poll sabotage plot.

“This is the first time the AFP received information on the matter. After checking with our staff offices, we found out there is no report in our files to substantiate this,” Padilla said.

Thus, the AFP “could not comment on an issue we know nothing about,” he added.

Lim told the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms on Tuesday that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had obtained classified information that China would attempt to “subvert” next year’s elections.

A critic of the Philippines’ automated election system said it was “very careless” of Lim to make such an allegation in public.

At a hearing of a joint congressional committee, Maricor Akol of the Automated Election System Watch said if Lim’s information came from an intelligence report, he should have disclosed it in a closed-door session.

“There’s going to be an uproar in the diplomatic community because of that statement,” Akol said.

China has rejected Lim’s claim.

The allegation coincided with a long-running dispute between the two countries over territories in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). China claims the entire South China Sea.

“The so-called ‘attempt by China’ to ‘sabotage’ the 2016 elections is totally groundless and a sheer fabrication,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Li Lingxiao said in a statement.

“China has always adhered to the principle of noninterference into other countries’ internal affairs,” she said. With a report from Reuters