THE Philippine National Police (PNP) insisted Wednesday that the casualties in the conduct of nationwide election checkpoints were results of legitimate police operations.
In a partial report from the National Election Monitoring and Action Center (NEMAC) released late Tuesday, Chief Superintendent Benigno Durana, PNP spokesperson, said five individuals were killed in over 6,200 checkpoint operations since the start of the election period on January 13. The deaths were all recorded in Central Luzon.
Some expressed concern because of the rising casualties in the election checkpoints, but the PNP allayed public fears, saying the ones getting killed are lawless elements.
“That’s a result of legitimate operations. Ito po ay mga criminal suspects who evaded legitimate Comelec [Commission on Elections] checkpoints,” Durana said.
“Noong magkaroon ng pursuit operations ang mga nag-ma-man ng checkpoints, they [suspects] decided to shoot it out with our police operatives kaya nagkaroon ng pagkamatay ng mga suspek na ito.,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Durana said 83 individuals have also been arrested after they were found carrying firearms and other dangerous weapons, and illegal drugs.
Furthermore, 82 guns were also seized by the police.
“We have eliminated from the streets these tools of crime. Some of those arrested are legitimate gun holders but we have a gun ban in effect while some were carrying loose firearms so they were charged with illegal possession of firearms,” he noted.
Durana appealed to the motorists to cooperate and bear with checkpoint operatives who are just fulfilling their duties.
Despite the red flags raised because of the recorded deaths, Durana said they have no plans of stopping or even easing the strict implementation of the election checkpoints.