BY VICTOR REYES and GERARD NAVAL
NEARLY 270,000 policemen and soldiers will be deployed nationwide for today’s national and local elections as security officials expressed confidence the synchronized polls will turn out to be peaceful and orderly.
PNP spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo said the days leading to today’s election was “relatively peaceful,” except for some isolated incidents, specifically last Saturday’s shooting incidents in Ilocos Sur and Nueva Ecija that left four people dead and several others injured.
“We are confident that our security coverage for (today) and the succeeding days will be enough to quell any security threat,” Fajardo told a press briefing at the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame yesterday, adding the PNP will “make sure that the election will be peaceful, safe and credible.”
Amid the PNP assurance, acting Elections spokesman John Rex Laudiangco called on voters living in areas under the supervision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to come out and vote.
“The Comelec control declaration is to assure the public that the Comelec, together with the AFP, PNP are addressing your concerns,” said Laudiangco, adding: “This is why we are saying to those in Comelec controlled areas to please go out and vote. We are in those areas to assure that the elections will proceed and continue.”
Laudiangco said placing areas under Comelec control should not be misconstrued as a “negative declaration” because “it is in fact declared to address the ongoing or any other potential or future situations.”
The poll body had initially placed under its control the towns of Buluan, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Datu Piang, Mangudadatu, Pandag, and Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao; and in Marawi City, Malabang, Tubaran, and Maguing in Lanao del Sur.
Subsequently, the Comelec added the province of Misamis Occidental, and the town of Pilar in Abra.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 10757, any political division, subdivision, unit, or area may be placed under Comelec control when the peace and order situation in the area may affect the conduct of elections.
Grounds for the declaration of Comelec control include having history of or current intense rivalry among the contending parties, areas that have been previously declared under Comelec Control, incidence of politically-motivated violence involving aspirants/candidates and/or their supporters, violence that maybe facilitated by the employment of Private Armed Groups (PAGs), and presence of serious armed threats posed by the communist terrorist group (CTG) and/or other threat groups including the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the Maute Group, and other analogous threat groups.
Fajardo said the PNP is not discounting any possible emergency situations and have put in place contingency measures to address these. She added they have studied possible scenarios and prepared appropriate responses to such scenarios.
“We have enough number of personnel (for the election),” Fajardo, noting that around 200,000 police personnel will be performing election-related duties for today’s election.
He said around 80,000 PNP personnel will be guarding polling centers, while 40,000 will be manning Comelec-PNP checkpoints, and 12,000 will be serving as reactionary standby support forces.
The rest, Fajardo said, will serve as convoy security during the transport of election paraphernalia, guards of Comelec facilities, and members of civil disturbance management teams.
“We are going to deploy around 200,000 personnel, including our civil disturbance management teams. All of them will be utilized (for the election),” said Fajardo.
Armed Forces spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala said some 69,705 soldiers will be performing election-related duties today, including in areas under Comelec control and red category areas or critical areas.
Police and military officials have earlier said some 56,000 policemen and 42,000 soldiers will be deployed throughout the country during Election Day.
The PNP said four cities and 24 municipalities are currently under Comelec control. This is on top of 13 cities and 104 municipalities that are considered red category areas.
“We’ve deployed the forces needed for all the areas of concern that Comelec asked us to help secure. And we also prepared contingency forces just in case,” said Zagala.
Zagala said the military has established command centers at the AFP general headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, down to the battalion level, “so we can monitor any incidents that require immediate response from the AFP.”
Zagala said it is important for the command centers to report poll-related incidents so there will be prompt military response.
“We believe that because of the preparations that we’ve made, we are confident that it will be peaceful, and we will be able to minimize untoward incidents,” Zagala said.
MINDANAO
Armed Forces chief Gen. Andres Centino said the military has deployed additional forces to Central Mindanao to ensure peaceful elections in the region.
Centino said some of the troops came from Western Mindanao, particularly from the Abu Sayyaf-infested Sulu.
“Right now, we have forces from Western Mindanao Command, from Sulu, we have transferred a unit, not really a huge group, just to augment our forces in Central Mindanao,” said Centino.
Centino said the troops were on their way to Central Mindanao as of yesterday afternoon, on board a C-130 plane.
Centino said the military has also pulled out troops from the Davao area for deployment to Central Mindanao.
“We received report that we need additional forces (in Central Mindanao) just to make sure there will be no untoward incident that will happen there,” said Centino.
NO PARTISAN ACTS
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said nothing has changed with President Duterte’s instructions to the PNP to “ensure today’s election will be orderly, peaceful and honest and ensure that all registered voters can vote at the polling places.”
Año said the President also wants voters to be safe from the threat of COVID-19.
Año said he has directed PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr “to ensure policemen are deployed and there they should not be involved in politics or partisan political activities.
Año said policemen should ensure there will be no campaigning and distribution of campaign materials during Election Day, which is considered as an election offense under existing laws.
The DILG chief also said the PNP will make sure that the two-day liquor ban, which began yesterday, is strictly implemented. “Policemen will not hesitate to arrest violators, we are warning the public,” he said.
PRE-ELECTION INCIDENTS
On Saturday morning, four supporters of two mayoralty candidates died and four others were injured in a shootout in Barangay Labut in Magsingal town in Ilocos Sur.
The fatalities were Lerry Pol Tarda, Recto Bagani, retired soldier Jovito Tumaneng and former militiaman William Buli-it, all supporters of mayoral candidates Alrico Favis and Lorry Salvador.
Police said the shootout was triggered by allegations of vote-buying.
“I am pleased to announce that tension in the town of Magsingal, Ilocos Sur has been defused as more police personnel were sent to the area to maintain peace and prevent the situation from further escalating,” said Fajardo.
On Saturday night in General Tinio town in Nueva Ecija, bodyguards of reelectionist mayor Isidro Pajarillaga and his opponent Virgillo Bote clashed in Barangay Concepcion.
Nineteen security personnel of the two mayoral candidates were arrested by the police and are now facing charges in court, said Fajardo.
Five of those arrested, all injured, are security personnel of Pajarilla, while the 19 others are security personnel of Bote.
Seized from the security personnel of Pajarillaga were five M16 rifles, 11 cal. 45 pistols, three 9 mm pistols, a cal. 40 pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun, assorted ammunition, magazines, 20 mobile phones, three radios, campaign leaflets and personal effects.
On the other hand, the security personnel of Bote yielded a 12-gauge shotgun, and a cal. 45 pistol.
Also confiscated from the two sides were five bullet-riddled vehicles.
Police said investigations are still underway whose side started the shootout and the motive.
Fajardo said there were 63 reported election-related incidents since the election period began last January 9.
Of these incidents, 16 were validated to be election-related and 41 were found to be not related to the polls. The rest, including the Ilocos Sur and Nueva Ecija incidents, are still subject to validation process.
He said the validated election-related incidents was still low compared to the 133 and 69 incidents confirmed incidents reported during the 2016 and 2019 elections, respectively.
VCMs
Also on Saturday, tension gripped Cotabato City after policemen reportedly refused to escort the transport of vote-counting machines (VCMs).
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Interior Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the VCMs were ready to be transported to polling precincts on Saturday morning but policemen reportedly refused to escort the convoy that would bring the VCMS on Saturday afternoon, causing tension inside the regional government compound.
Several teachers who were waiting for official order to serve in the elections were inside the compound during the tension, causing them to scamper for safety.
Año said the incident reached his attention, and he was due to have a dialogue with PNP and Comelec officials later Sunday.
“We will make sure that any disagreement there will be settled. The election in Cotabato will have to push through, we will make sure it will be peaceful, that the election will push through,” said Año.
Meanwhile, the PNP said a total of 3,081 persons have been arrested since the start of the implementation of the election gun ban last January 9.
The arrested suspects included 22 policemen and 19 soldiers.
The PNP said 2,359 assorted firearms, gun parts and gun replicas were seized during 2,941 operations, along with 1,004 bladed weapons and 115 explosives.
The five regions with most number of arrested gun ban violators was Metro Manila with 1,133, followed by Calabarzon with 339, Central Visayas with 328, Central Luzon with 279 and Western Visayas with 186.
