Board of Election Inspector Fe Agusto cut the voter’s election receipt during the final testing and sealing of the counting machines at the Buhangin Elementary School in Davao City, Thursday morning, May 5, 2016. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
By May Anne Love Deseo
DAVAO CITY -– The Philippine National Police announced Thursday, May 12 that there were no incident of election-related violence in the Davao region during the conduct of polls on Monday.
Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan, regional police chief, said the PNP national headquarters has given the go signal to lower the alert level in the region.
“I gave my instructions to all my provincial directors and city directors that we will bring down our alert level from full alert to heightened alert after the proclamation of all provincial candidates,” he said.
He added that the PRO 11 is starting to pull out the augmentation personnel sent to the different provinces, and that they will slowly be shifting back to their regular duties.
In an interview with Davao Today on Wednesday, PRO 11 spokesperson Chief Insp. Andrea Dela Cerna said the whole region was generally peaceful and manageable in terms of its peace and order situation during the conduct of the elections.
She said that reports from the Regional Election Monitoring Action Center (REMAC) were mostly regarding the defects and problems of vote-counting machines (VCM).
She added that reports they received from the provincial monitoring centers were immediately delivered to the National Election Monitoring and Action Center (NEMAC) at Camp Crame, Quezon City real-time monitoring.
“We have conducted 26,358 check-points all over the region. We have 250 persons arrested and confiscated 182 firearms and 105 deadly weapons,” Dela Cerna said.
Dela Cerna said that they continue to conduct regular check-points and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) check-points since the gun-ban has not been lifted yet.
“We can safely say right now that the election was successful within the region, because of the public’s cooperation,” Dela Cerna said.
She added that the public played a vital role in the election because of their vigilance and response to the text hotlines and cellular numbers that PRO gave out.information center on the updates on the elections.
Dela Cerna said that they will continue their security measures for peace and order in the region even after the declaration of winners.
“We will continue serving the public in maintaining peace and order, we will enforce the law at the same time even after election period,” she said.
The PNP established REMAC as an information center on the updates on the elections. Dela Cerna said the REMAC, which is effective since January 10, will operate until June 8 of this year. (davaotoday.com)
