Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public information office chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala on Monday described the recently-concluded barangay elections as generally peaceful and successful.
He attributed this to the strong partnership between the military and the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
"We can make an assessment that the elections were successful because there were only a few areas (only in the 6th Infantry Division's area of operation in Maguindanao) was there some disruption," Zagala stressed.
"(As) we concluded the election, the AFP and PNP troops remain vigilant to ensure that as the polling precincts closed and the transportation of the ballot boxes were being done, our troops remained alert and vigilant," the AFP public information office chief stressed.
Meanwhile, Zagala's views were also shared by PNP public information office chief Senior Supt. Rueben Theodore Sindac.
"The sovereign will of the electorate has prevailed. As the polling centers officially closed at 3 p.m. today, all 17 Police Regional Offices across the country reported no serious peace and order concerns in their areas of responsibility," he added.
Sindac stated that although there were some reported cases of isolated incidents of violence Sunday and Monday, including 13 incidents over the last 24 hours, these where not at all serious as to have a significant effect on the overall peace and order situation on a national scale.
"Under COMELEC supervision, canvassing of votes were underway in some 170,000 clustered precincts housed in 36,000 polling centers nationwide," the PNP official added.
Police security forces were under specific instructions to remain in their posts to provide security to the election activities until after completion and termination of the proceedings.
In the ARMM where 995 or 39.96 percent of the 2,490 barangay in the region were listed as priority areas, there were 1,649 PNP personnel performing election duty as members of the Special Board of Election Tellers (SBET) in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu.
"Thru the Regional Special Operations Task Groups (RSOTG) more focused law enforcement operations on election security concerns were being undertaken by PNP units in cooperation with the AFP under the spirit of the PNP-AFP Joint Letter Directive establishing the Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Committees (JPSCC)," Sindac stated.
During the past 30 days of the 45 day election period that started on Sept. 28, the PNP public information office chief said that the Task Force SAFE 2013 “Alpha” Action Center recorded a total of 38 politically-motivated incidents involving 32 shooting incidents, one strafing and three stabbing with 73 victims, among whom, 22 died, 34 were wounded and eight were missing.
Eleven of the fatalities were incumbent barangay officials
Over the same 30-day period, as of 3:27 p.m. Monday, no let-up implementation of election laws (COMELEC Resolution 9561-A) had resulted in the arrest of 622 gunban violators and the confiscation of 516 firearms, 18 gun replica, 200 bladed weapons, 68 grenades, 290 other explosives, and 4,328 rounds of ammunition.
A total of 578 civilians topped the list of arrested gun ban violators, along with 21 security guards, eight PNP men, six government officials, six AFP personnel, and three militiamen.
Regions 1, 3, 4A, 4B, 11, Cordillera and National Capital Region reported the arrest of 219 violators of the liquor ban.
"Police units will continue to enforce election laws particularly the liquor ban that remains in effect until midnight tonight and the election gun ban that is enforced until Nov. 12," Sindac concluded.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=580952
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