Top regional officials from the Calabarzon region’s Commission on Elections (Comelec), Police Regional Office (PRO4A) and the Philippine Army 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) convened on Wednesday at the Multi-purpose center here to discuss plans for the May 14 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
PRO4A Regional Director Chief Supt. Ma.O R. Aplasca, 2ID Commander Maj. Gen. Rhoderick Parayno and Comelec 4 Regional Election Director lawyer Juanito Icaro led their respective provincial offices to tackle security and peace and order preparations for the twin local village and youth council polls.
The official inter-agency conference aims to put in place more dynamic strategies on the security preparations for the upcoming electoral exercise and ensure honest, safe and secure elections.
“I don’t see any reasons not to pursue this election, rest assured that we will have a safe, honest and peaceful election because of the support of the PNP and AFP,” Icaro said as he thanked the police and military “for always being there to help the Comelec.”
During the meeting, Aplasca appealed to the poll body’s legal supervisors to be the lead agency in initiating legal actions in cases of vote buying.
He also urged police and military to be always alert and vigilant during the election season and continue to give updates.
“Let us not dwell on our own individual inadequacies but on our strength and combined efforts in making this election honest, safe and secure as possible,” Aplasca said.
He also ordered all police provincial directors in the Calabarzon region and their AFP counterparts to finalize the security and contingency plans and deployment plan of the personnel.
“I am now directing all the recall of the security personnel detailed to all public officials. This is in line with the COMELEC Omnibus Election Code under Section 261,” Aplasca stated.
For his part, Parayno assured their commitment to work closely with the COMELEC and the PNP to provide honest and secured election.
Calabarzon police provincial directors and the military officials presented their respective peace and order situation assessments, updates and security preparations for the elections and raised concerns on the various threats of the communist terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, lawyer Gloria G. Ramos-Petallo, Batangas provincial election supervisor, presented their calendar of activities based on the COMELEC Resolution 102496; the deputization of the AFP and PNP (Comelec Resolution 10204) and guidelines in placing a certain area under COMELEC control (Comelec Resolution 10199) attentive to the synchronized village and SK polls.
Petallo also emphasized the exemption of the PNP from the prohibition of the transfer of personnel during election period (COMELEC Res. 10205) from April 14 – May 21, 2018; the activation of the Regional Joint Security Control Center (Comelec Res. 10249) and the COMELEC gun ban, checkpoints and liquor ban. (PNA)
