The Philippine National Police has lowered its security alert status to normal after what it described as a successful and peaceful conduct of last Monday’s elections.
Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, PNP spokesman, said the normal alert status was effected at 8 a.m. yesterday after security assessment across the country revealed that there is no more serious threat arising from the May 9 elections.
“Some of the policemen we deployed have already started going back to their mother units. The rest are expected to pull out soon,” said Mayor.
“With all the situation normalizing, the Chief PNP (Director General Ricardo C. Marquez) instructed to lift the full alert status,” he added.
Mayor, however, said that regional directors and provincial commanders have the jurisdiction to either lift the full alert status or maintain it depending on the situation in some of their areas.
The PNP leadership has recorded minimal cases of election-related incidents, especially on Election Day, according to Mayor.
Mayor said there were 32 ERIs reported from 12:01 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday. Among them were gun attacks, ballot snatchings, and confrontations of rival candidates and their supporters.