By AARON RECUENCO
Security preparations for the midterm elections next year will come early following the series of killings that already left two mayors and a vice mayor dead in just a span of one week.
Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said that he had already directed all police commanders across the country to draft their respective security plans for the 2019 elections in May next year.
“In view of the killings of local chief executives, I am directing the command group and the regional directors to review and launch early security measures ahead of the 2019 midterm elections,” said Albayalde.
“This includes intensifying police visibility, random checkpoints, and focused law enforcement operations to prevent commission of election-related violence,” he added.
With the order, police commander down to the town police chiefs are expected to map out their own respective election security plans that will be submitted to their provincial directors and later to regional directors.
Regional directors are expected to consolidate the election security measures in their respective areas, their inputs would be included in the overall strategy that would be crafted by think tanks at the national headquarters level at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Part of the election security mapping are the identification of possible election hot spots based on history of violence in the past polls, analysis of local politics situation based on the personalities that would run and the identification of private armed groups.
“The order includes directive to all provincial directors and chiefs of police to coordinate closely with the local chief executives and other stakeholders to ensure that security and safety measures would have the broad support of the community,” said Albayalde.
Normally, election security is being implemented before or during the election gun ban. Also, security measures are also being intensified once the filing of certificates of candidacy is done in October.
Albayalde, however, stressed that his order for early election preparations should not be misconstrued as panic mode for the PNP amid intense criticisms questioning the capability of the police on peace and order amid the series of killings.
Based on the PNP data, at least 16 mayors and vice mayors have already been killed since July 2016. Some of them have been linked to the illegal drugs trade.
Albayalde, however, said they do not see any pattern or link to the killings of Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio in Nueva Ecija and Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan of Trece Martirez in Cavite.
“It is not alarming, this (early election preparations) is part of our preventive measures, target hardening measures to prevent possible occurrence of these incidents in the forthcoming midterm elections,” said Albayalde.
