By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay – PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Antique Provincial Police Office (APPO) has invited local candidates in the province to sign a covenant in preparation for the May 2019 elections.
APPO Deputy Director for Operations Norby Escobar, in an interview Friday, said they have invited the provincial and mayoralty candidates of the province’s 18 towns to attend the Covenant Signing and Unity Walk on January 13.
“We are sending out the invitation letter to all provincial and mayoralty candidates,” he said.
He added that there will be an early morning Mass at the Saint Joseph Cathedral here, after which, the candidates will proceed to the APPO headquarters for the covenant signing.
The covenant signing is usually initiated by the Commission on Elections as part of ensuring a peaceful and safe poll.
In Antique, there is the LCD team composed of Senator Loren Legarda, running for congresswoman of the province’s lone district, and re-electionists Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao and Vice Governor Edgar Denosta.
Their political opponents are former representative Exequiel B. Javier, who is again running for a congressional post, third-termer Rep. Paolo Everardo Javier, who is running for governor, and provincial board member Rony Molina, who is eyeing the vice governor post.
Meanwhile, Escobar said last November, some 20 policemen had been reshuffled within the province for having relatives running in the May 13 elections.
“(They) were initially transferred just within the province because of their being related to candidates in their areas of assignment,” Escobar said.
He added that they are now in the process of identifying chiefs of police serving in their respective police stations for two consecutive years so they could be reassigned to other stations in time for the start of the election period on January 13.
The reassignment of the police officers is being done to make sure they could not influence the election process.
