President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday thanked the military and police for a peaceful elections.

“The entire military establishment and the police, you have to thank them for the peaceful election,” Duterte said in a speech during the celebration of Eid’l Fitr in Davao City.

Duterte again urged the Commission on Elections to find a new automated election system.

“On Smartmatic, even if there is one vote that is wasted that’s not good. It will foment and it will generate… I said find a new one that will not have problem with at least one vote,” he said.

Comelec made a statement saying they are considering the suggestion of Duterte.

According to the Philippine National Police, validated election-related incidents decreased by 55 percent.

PNP recorded 60 incidents in 2019, down from 133 last 2016.

Of the 60 validated incidents, 51 were recorded before the election, eight during the election and one incident after the election.

From January 13 to June 7, PNP recorded 23 people were killed, 46 injured and 44 unharmed.

“We attribute this to the early security preparation of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), PNP and Comelec. And of course, the cooperation of the public and our relentless campaign against loose firearms, private armed groups and implementation of search warrants and warrant of arrest,” said Police

Colonel Bernard Banac, PNP spokesman, in a press briefing on Friday.

PNP also arrested 6,226 persons on Comelec checkpoints, patrol response, implementation of search warrant, service of warrant of arrest and buy-bust.

They were able to confiscate 5,191 firearms and 49,499 deadly weapons.

“Definitely, we want to achieve zero-incident as much as we can but considering the nature of our election here in the Philippines, there’s a possibility that there are still electIon-related incidents but as much as possible we want to reduce it to the lowest level,” said Banac.

“We are not content on having 60 incidents, (so) for 2022, we will aspire for a much lower number if not totally zero-incidents,” he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS