ILOILO City – A total of 1,600 election candidates from six districts in this city signed a covenant for clean, peaceful and orderly barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Monday next week.
“They committed not to engage in any act of cheating,” said Senior Inspector Shella Mae Sangrines, spokesperson of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).
The ICPO initiated the covenant signing separately conducted in each district of the city – City Proper, La Paz, Jaro, Mandurriao, Molo, and Arevalo.
Jaro contributed the highest number of candidate-signatories at 500.
Signatories in La Paz reached 300 candidates; City Proper, 250; Arevalo and Molo, each with 200; and Mandurriao, 150.
The peace covenant signing had the backing of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Data from Comelec’s Iloilo City office showed a total of 5,175 candidates – 396 for barangay captain, 3,103 for barangay councilmen, 386 filed for SK chairman, and 1,290 for SK councilor.
Meanwhile, policemen have been ordered to “tightly monitor” six barangays here classified as “election areas of concern.”
Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, city police director, declined to name the six villages saying an assessment is ongoing.
The Regional Joint Security Control Center composed of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Comelec is conducting the review.
According to Biñas, his men monitored the presence of “sectoral groups” sympathetic or supportive of the New People’s Army in the six villages, thus their classification as “election areas of concern.”
It was previously reported that “intense political rivalry” among barangay election candidates led to their classification as poll areas of concern. This was not the case, said Biñas. (PNA)
