Soldiers to be deployed to Negros Oriental voting centers

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 14, 2023): Soldiers to be deployed to Negros Oriental voting centers (By Mary Judaline Partlow)

ELECTION DUTY. Government security forces stand side-by-side during the send-off ceremony before the May 9, 2022 elections. Army soldiers and police personnel will be deployed inside the voting precincts in Negros Oriental during the Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections to ensure safe, peaceful, and orderly polls. (PNA file photo by Mary Judaline Flores Partlow)

DUMAGUETE CITY – Soldiers will be deployed inside all the 549 clustered voting centers in Negros Oriental alongside Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel to ensure a safe, peaceful, and orderly conduct of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) on Oct. 30.

Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, regional election director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Central Visayas, said Friday that because Negros Oriental has been placed under the poll body’s control, this arrangement has been allowed.

“This is the first time our Armed Forces (of the Philippines) will deploy their personnel in the voting centers. Before, they used to be just QRT (Quick Response Teams). This time, they will be deployed together with the PNP personnel in every voting center,” Castillano told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) after the meeting of the Provincial Joint Security Coordinating Council.

Soldiers will be stationed with their police counterparts in every voting center, unlike in other areas in the country where they only provide support to the PNP and cannot go beyond a 50-meter radius, he explained.

Negros Oriental has 549 clustered voting centers in its 557 barangays.

Castillano, however, did not mention how many soldiers and police personnel would be deployed to each voting center.

Meanwhile, at least 120 Army troops are arriving next week to augment the current security forces in the province.

The PNP will also send more personnel in time for the campaign period, which runs from Oct. 19 to 28.

Currently, the election areas of concern in Negros Oriental include eight barangays under the orange category due to the presence of armed groups, such as the communist New People’s Army, and one under the yellow category for intense political rivalry.

However, since the start of the election period on Aug. 28, no single election-related violent incident has been reported in the province, Castillano added.

The election period ends on Nov. 29.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1211805