TACLOBAN CITY — The Barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Eastern Visayas have been peaceful and orderly as of noon on Monday as the region’s 3 million voters trooped to 3,783 voting centers in six provinces, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported.
Comelec Assistant Regional Director Felicisimo Embalsado said voters were able to cast their votes when election precincts opened 7 a.m. even in areas with history of election-related violence.
There are 284 villages in Northern Samar, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Leyte identified as election hotspots, citing intense political rivalries, threats of armed rebels, and violence committed by private armed groups.
“If there are precincts that were not able to open for voting, this should have been reported immediately by our election officers to the regional office, but as of noontime today, we have not received such report,” Embalsado said.
The presence of police and military near polling place especially in hotspot area contributed to peaceful and orderly election day, according to Embalsado.
About 2,690 soldiers and policemen were deployed across Eastern Visayas last week to secure the village and youth council elections.
The number of augmented personnel is on top of the 4,471 policemen assigned in towns and cities tasked to secure voting centers.
Of the 3,783 voting centers in the region, 2,927 are being secured by the police and 856 by the military.
“We are thankful that our uniformed men managed control the situation because so far, the election is still peaceful,” Embalsado said.
“Based on the information from the ground, as of noon time today, the situation is still normal and no untoward incidents were monitored in our area of responsibility,” said Supt. Maria Bella Rentuaya, police regional spokesperson, in a text message sent to reporters.
On Saturday, Police Regional Director Chief Supt. Gilberto Cruz went to Calbayog City for a “show of force” targeting 18 wanted criminals with some known members of private armed groups.
His team with nearly 200 policemen also visited election hot spots in Calbayog, a city known for violence during poll season in the past.
On Sunday, Cruz also led a hot pursuit operation to armed men at Omagonhon village in Tabango, Leyte who allegedly harassed some voters. Confiscated from the site are abandoned firearms which are now subject for cross matching and ballistics examination.
“Teams from different units of police regional office are still in the area to hunt down these men and will not cease unless perpetrators are jailed,” the PNP said in a statement.
Embalsado is expecting that the election will end smoothly so that canvassing could start immediately after 3 p.m.
The Comelec official said that although there are reports of vote buying in all parts of the region, election officers have not received any formal complaint so far.
For the Comelec to act on the alleged vote buying, Embalsado said that they need a sworn statement and affidavit of the complainant, including evidences of vote buying. (Sarwell Meniano/PNA)
