By Martin A. Sadongdong
The Philippine National Police yesterday urged the public to resist vote-buying from candidates in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections tomorrow.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said part of the 160,000-strong PNP deployed to secure the elections are undercover agents going after vote-buying candidates.
“This is what we expect every election and reports are coming in left and right as early as now about the vote-buying of some candidates, the local chief executives. It will go intense especially during the day of the elections,” Albayalde said.
He advised voters to choose their candidates very well and refuse to sell their votes and the future of their barangays.
“It seems there’s nothing new with vote-buying and I think we should effect a change. I think we should have an internal cleansing of those running and incumbent local leaders,” he noted.
Meanwhile, PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. John Bulalacao said yesterday 27 persons have been killed in relation to the elections as of 6 a.m. Friday.
The PNP has also recorded 25 election-related incidents in which six persons were wounded and five others were unharmed.
Twenty-three of the election-related incidents were shooting while two were kidnapping cases. Police have yet to find a way to solve them.
Eighty-six persons have been tagged in the poll-related incidents. Three of them were arrested while the rest remain at-large.
Bulalacao said 23 at-large suspects have been identified while 60 are unidentified.
