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ILOILO City – A total of 8,511 policemen are being mobilized to keep the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Western Visayas clean, peaceful and orderly on Monday, May 14.
Every polling center (school) will be posted with two police personnel, as agreed during the final Visayas Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Center meeting yesterday at the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
“Our policemen are ready,” declared Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag who spearheaded yesterday’s sendoff ceremony for the cops in Camp Delgado.
Latest data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and police showed 133 barangay election hotspots in the region.
According to Binag, most of these barangays have insurgency problems.
Negros Occidental has 80 hotspots; Iloilo province, 28; Capiz, 15; Aklan, 4; Iloilo City, 4; and Antique, 2.
Bacolod City and Guimaras have no election watchlist areas (EWAS) or hotspots, according to Comelec.
So far, said Binag, the PRO-6 has not monitored specific threats to the peace and order in the region.
Binag, however, stressed the checkpoints would continue, especially at night.
The gun ban is also being enforced without letup, he added.
PRO-6 hopes to keep Monday’s polls free from major crimes.
Binag also turned over to provincial and city police directors 30 new Toyota Hi-Lux patrol vehicles to be used on election day.
The vehicles were from the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police.
Six were given to the province of Aklan; five to Bacolod City; four each to Antique and Capiz; three each to Guimaras and Negros Occidental; two each to Iloilo city and province; and one to the PRO-6 headquarters. /PN