By Christine Cudis/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The history of Philippine politics is not as smooth-sailing as election candidates’ campaign advertisements go, in fact, it is among the perilous activities the country has to host each time.
But for the 2019 mid-term pre-elections, police officials have noted a significant change in the behavior of the majority.
In an interview for the Philippine News Agency’s online program Pros and Cons, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen. Oscar Albayalde said election-related incidents this year dropped to 75 percent from the consistently high number of incidents in the previous elections.
Based on the reported and validated election-related incidents from three previous elections, the PNP noted a total of 133 incidents in 2016; 109 in 2013; and 166 incidents in 2010.
A lesser figure for the 2019 pre-elections, where a total of 26 incidents, was recorded.
“The police have been working hard to see this kind of difference in these numbers. More operations were done, stricter policies on every checkpoint are imposed where our officers have been seizing illegal firearms that may be used in the future for bad purposes,” Albayalde explained in the interview.
As compared to the current pre-election period, a total of 45 victims were identified wherein 13 people were killed, 12 wounded, and 20 unharmed. A major drop — 76 percent — is recorded in 2019 pre-elections.
In 2016, a total of 227 victims were recorded wherein 48 were killed, 55 were wounded/injured, and 124 were unharmed.
In 2013, a total of 169 victims were recorded in which 44 were killed, 63 were wounded/injured, and 62 were unharmed.
In 2010, a total of 212 were recorded with 53 people killed, 62 wounded/injured, and 97 unharmed.
“One of our basis for the security preparations are the following proclamations of the President: to dismantle private armed groups, to ensure that the elections would be clean and credible, to correct counting of votes, and for security personnel to be non-partisan,” Albayalde added.
The chief of police’s system benchmarks on the 5Ps of Crisis Management: Predict, Prevent, Prepare, Perform, Post Action, and Assessment.
A security task force, which is replicated down to the regional level, was formed.
Under this task force, there are six task groups: TG Focused Police Operations, TG Intel-led Operations, TG Legal Offensive, TG Information Operations, TG Human Resource, and TG Finance and Logistics.
“We have also organized a Comelec Liaison Team for ease of communication and coordination with the commission and dissemination of directives,” Albayalde said.
Coordination meetings were also conducted to thresh out issues and concerns and other matters pertaining to the elections.
Their most recent data show that there will be 149,935 security personnel to be deployed for the mid-term elections. They will be assigned to voting centers, canvassing centers, and warehouse hubs.
Some of them will for part of Quick Reactions Teams, Border Control, Election Boards, and man the election monitoring action center.
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