PNP campaign vs illegal drugs to continue even during polls

May 9, 2019

The Philippine National Police ( PNP) on Thursday said their campaign against illegal drugs will continue even during election.

In a press briefing, PNP spokesperson Colonel Bernard Banac said there will be enough personnel to conduct operation against crimes even after the deployment of 149, 833 police for the midterm election on May 13.

“So aside for those assigned for election duties, there will still be personnel inside police stations that will conduct administrative duties who will respond to call and the investigator will continue (their job),” Banac said.

“Even the monitoring of persons being suspected involved in illegal drugs will continue. Our campaign against illegal drug will continue,” he added.

Banac said out of the 149,833 personnel deployed, 75, 486 will give security at voting centers; 11, 413 will be members of quick response teams.

There will be 34, 388 as standby support at Camp Crame and other regional headquarters; 2, 838 trained election boards; 4, 566 to provide security in canvassing centers; 6, 083 will be in election monitoring centers; 1, 923 security for Comelec warehouse and hubs; and 13, 133 personnel at checkpoint centers and crowd disturbance management.

Based on their latest data, election-related incidents are now at 33 where 14 were recorded dead and 22 injured.

Banac said shooting incidents are the highest with 22.

Police General Oscar Albayalde said almost 1,000 of trained election boards are assigned in Mindanao and they have yet to consider if there is a need to trained EBs in Mimaropa, Central and Eastern Visayas regions.

During his visit in General Santos, Albayalde reiterated that election-related incidents are lower compared to the previous elections and urged candidates to be civilized on May 13.

“Hopefully nothing will happen, we are so far, so good. If we look at the national statistics compared (with) the incidents on 2016 and 2013, we really have lower incidents,” he said.

Albayalde said incidents are “lower by 70 percent and hopefully this will not increase.''

''We are appealing to all the candidates, let us conduct this election in a very civilized way. Let’s show the whole world that we can have a peaceful and orderly election (that) no one will get hurt and there is no need for our law enforcement agencies to guard us,” he added.

According to PNP, they recorded around 106 incidents last 2016 elections and 94 incidents in 2013 elections. Ella Dionisio/DMS