DAVAO CITY – Davao marked the first day of the campaign period with no election-related violence, the Philippine National Police (PNP) in this region said Wednesday, February 10.
“There were no reported incidents with regards to election-related violence, and the kick-off of the campaign period was generally peaceful,” said Chief Inspector Andrea C. Dela Cerna, spokesperson of PNP Region XI.
Speaking to a press conference here, Dela Cerna hopes that the peaceful climate would be sustained all throughout the period.
Based on their latest data, the police have conducted 5,420 security checks in several areas between January 10 to February 10. They also claimed to have contained potential election-related violence by confiscating 49 firearms and 22 weapons, and arrested 56 people who violated the Commission on Election’s gun ban.
“We will iron out an election contingency plan and at the same time we will tackle the EWAs (election watch-list areas) so we will have the initial list and then the alignment of PNP and AFP election deployment,” she said.
She also said that the directive of the regional director of PNP towards the candidates is to instil discipline towards their respective followers in order to prevent unnecessary incidents while the campaign period is on-going.
“The candidates should discipline their supporters since most of the unwanted scenarios occur because of heightened emotions,” she said.
Cooperation between the PNP and AFP is also in full force here in a bid to secure vote-rich Davao region throughout the campaign period.
“PNP (and) AFP are under (the command) of the Comelec. So, every move, every action that we will take, as long they are election-related, are orders from the Comelec,” said Police Superintendent Danilo Macerin, Regional Chief of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao Region.
There are at least 2.2 million registered voters in Davao Region, according to the Comelec in November 2015.(davaotoday.com)
