The Philippine National Police (PNP) will deploy 187,000 police officers across the country as part of heightened alert measures for the Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) and the commemoration of the Undas (All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days) holidays.
This comes as the 10-day campaign period for the village and youth polls kicked off yesterday, PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said in a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City on Wednesday.
Fajardo also reminded police officers that they are only limited to documenting poll campaign violations.
“They would document and report these to their respective election officers and it will be up to the election officers to issue and send notices to the candidates, particularly illegal campaign materials that are placed outside common poster areas,” she said.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. also called on voters to ditch vote buying to protect the sanctity of the electoral process.
“That’s why I call on everyone: let’s work together to protect our electoral process against those who commit vote buying and vote selling. Let’s put an end to this cancer in our society!” Abalos said in a statement.
He reminded voters that they have the power to initiate change in their communities by picking the right candidates.
“Voting is a sacred exercise of our democratic rights. Your votes are very important, especially because the barangays play a big role in implementing government programs and policies,” he added.
Fajardo said police officers cannot join campaign sorties of candidates in compliance with the PNP’s non-partisan stance.
“On the part of the PNP, at the general areas of activities, we can provide additional personnel to make sure that the campaign sorties are peaceful and of course, our intention is to maintain peace and order in those engagement areas.”
“If you see police officers providing route security, this is only for venue security purposes and the maintenance of peace and order but not to a particular candidate,” she added.
Fajardo said the PNP would strictly implement the money ban imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to combat vote buying and selling.
“The Comelec has clear rules that you can carry cash worth P500,000 and above as long as you can provide justifications on why you have it. Of course, those exempted include businessmen, disbursing officers and cashiers, but once you arrive at the checkpoint and you have an authority to carry that from your company, you would be allowed to pass,” she said.
“But if you carry that amount of cash and you also have campaign materials and you cannot explain the purpose of carrying that large sum of cash, the PNP personnel manning the checkpoint would report it to the Comelec and it would up to the Comelec to issue show cause orders against you,” she added.
Abalos also said the PNP is ready to deploy more personnel, particularly in areas determined by the Comelec as areas of concern, to maintain public safety and security and prevent all forms of election-related violence in communities.
Meanwhile, a poll watchdog call on the public to be vigilant over instances of Abuse of State Resources (ASR) during the campaign period.
In a statement, Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) executive director Ona Caritos urged the people to report the possible abuse on government resources by those who are running in the BSKE.
She said the public may submit their ASR reports through its website: https://www.lente.org.ph/report#report-form; email: lente.philippines@gmail.com.
They may also report such through the group’s hotline: 0920-266-0944.
At the same time, the LENTE official warned of a potential surge in ASR by incumbent officials.
“Incumbent officials use state resources for their electoral advantage, thus, affecting the standard of a level playing field in elections,” she said.
Caritos reported that said such actions have been observed even prior to the start of the campaign period.
Among them, she added, is in one of the cities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), where incumbent barangay officials, who are running in the forthcoming polls, were observed providing temporary shelters to their constituents with plans of converting the same into daycare centers.
LENTE said several welfare programs, such as Oplan Libreng Tuli, Free X-ray, and HIV testing, were also observed in one of the cities in South Cotabato, wherein local government officials promoted candidates they are supporting for the upcoming polls.
