Military, police ready for Monday's elections
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has not monitored any serious threat related to the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKEs) on Monday.
“After a series of deliberate planning conferences that include contingent events, the measures, and the resources to address the same, the AFP is all set for tomorrow’s Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections,” said Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman, Sunday.
“Thus far, there are no serious threat monitored in regard to the conduct of elections. Nonetheless, contingency measures were laid out including the deployment of sufficient number of specially trained and equipped AFP personnel in Comelec-identified red areas,” he added.
As of May 2, 2018 the Commission on Elections has recorded a total of 7,638 areas declared as election hotspot.
Of these areas there are a total of 597 are in Code Red or the areas in “critical situation”, 4,970 under Code Orange or the areas with presence of armed lawless groups and 2,071 others are in Code Yellow or the areas “with history of political unrest”.
Arevalo said the military will help in ensuring the success of the elections.
“The AFP compliments its election duties with focused combat, intelligence, and civil-military operations. That is to help ensure that no unscrupulous individuals or groups?be they private armed, local terrorists, or Communist terrorist groups? take advantage or hamper the conduct of the elections,” he said.
In a television interview, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde said authorities deployed for election duties are working to prevent reported vote buying.
“The rampant and the usual vote buying…, yes if we received complaints we act on it. Of course, we want our policemen… on the ground to prevent this vote buying activities in different areas of our country,” he said.
Albayalde said the PNP also deployed additional forces in the areas where election incidents were reported.
"We deployed additional personnel in these areas particularly in Abra where there are rampant election incidents,” he said.
It can be recalled the PNP has deployed more than 160,000 personnel to secure the elections nationwide. Robina Asido/DMS
