|
THE
National Police has recorded 125 incidents of election
violence nationwide as of Sunday and is expecting more.
As a
result, the force sent highly trained personnel from the
Special Action Force to election hot spots, said Chief
Supt. Louie Palmera, deputy chief of the Office of the
Deputy Chief for Operations of the National Police.
Palmera
said that the National Police is giving particular
attention to nine provinces namely Cagayan, Isabela,
Masbate, Abra, Nueva Ecija, Western Samar, Lanao del
Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan, all listed as areas of
immediate concern.
“The
National Police chief, Director General Oscar Calderon,
has deployed teams from the Special Action Force in each
of these provinces to augment the personnel assigned
there to ensure an honest, orderly and peaceful
elections,” Palmera said.
Palmera
admitted that the incidence of election violence so far
have exceeded that in the 2004 elections by 22. Only 103
violent incidents were recorded in 2004.
Relatedly, Palmera said that officials of the Office of
the Deputy Chief for Operations are conducting meetings
with their counterparts in the Armed Forces for the
possible augmentation of police forces by soldiers
because of the lack of police personnel to secure the
polling precincts on May 14.
He said
the officials are ironing out kinks so that in the event
that the Commission on Elections gives the go ahead for
the augmentation of the police by the military, it will
not violate the memorandum of agreement between the
defense department and the Comelec on the military’s
noninterference in the elections.
“Humihingi kami ng tulong sa Comelec na sana ay mabigyan
ng kapangyarihan ang ating mga kapatid sa Armed Forces
na tumulong sa pulis sa pagbabantay sa mga presinto on a
limited scale. Kailangang-kailangan namin ang tulong ng
Armed Forces sa dahilang kulang ang mga tao natin na
magbabantay sa mga presinto [We are asking the help of
the Comelec to authorize the Armed Forces so they could
help the police guard the precincts on a limited scale.
We really need the help of the Armed Forces we don’t
have enough people to watch over the precincts],”
Palmera said.
One
possible limitation of the function of the soldiers,
Palmera said, is that they will only be tasked to
frequently patrol polling centers declared as “high
risks.” |
