ILOILO City – A total of 4,119 police personnel across Western Visayas participated in the recent three-day local absentee voting (LAV).
This was 96.76 percent of the 4,257 cops earlier project to vote, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
The Antique Police Provincial Office (APPO) and Guimaras Police Provincial Office (GPPO) had all of their personnel participating in the LAV – 173 for the APPO and 93 for the GPPO.
As for the other police provincial offices:
* Aklan – 311 out of 312
* Negros Occidental – 1,655 out of 1,753
* Iloilo – 1,681 out of 1,715
* Capiz – 206 out of 211
According to Police Brigadier General Flynn Dongbo, regional police director, the 3.4 percent or 138 police personnel who failed to participate in the April 27 to 29 LAV had very important matters to attend to.
“Advantageous for us uniformed personnel to participate in this LAV to exercise our right to vote, as most of our personnel would be deployed outside of their respective municipalities this May 9 national and local elections. Nagpapasalamat tayo na binigyan tayo ng ibang date for voting,” Dongbo said.
The manner of voting for LAV was manual; the voter wrote down the names of his chosen candidates on the official ballot.
At the Iloilo Police Provincial Office in Santa Barbara, Iloilo, the LAV was peaceful and orderly.
There was a waiting area where the cops’ body temperature was checked before they were allowed to proceed to the IPPO covered gym where the voting area was situated.
Upon entering the gym, cops proceeded to a table to verify their names in the list of LAV voters.
After the verification, cops were given ballots and white envelopes. They then proceeded to armchairs safety distanced from one another where they wrote down the names of their chosen candidates.
After filing out their ballots, the cops thumb-marked these then put them inside the white envelopes and drop these envelopes in ballot boxes.
Due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, the cops were required to wear facemask and observe physical distancing.
Regarding the cops’ assignment for Monday next week, Dongbo said, “Inaasahan ko sa mga police natin na naka-assign sa mga polling precincts not to leave their post during election day. Those who will leave their posts will be sanctioned,” said Dongbo./PN
