By Leah Agonoy/Philippine News Agency
LABANGAN, Zamboanga del Sur — The Army’s 1st Infantry Division has deployed a battalion of troops to render election duties within its area of jurisdiction.
The 1st Division Provisional Battalion, composed of 355 soldiers and policemen, was organized to render security duty to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 13 mid-term polls.
Brig. Gen. Roberto Ancan, the Army’s 1st Infantry Division commander, led the battalion’s send-off ceremony in Camp Cesar Sang-an in Barangay Pulacan, this town, on Monday.
Ancan, who is also the Task Force Zampelan (Zamboanga Peninsula and Lanao provinces) commander, said the troops were deployed in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Misamis Occidental.
Ancan ordered the troops to be culturally-sensitive and respectful, as well as cautious in their actions “so that we may continue to sustain the progress that we have achieved in the pursuit of our mission”.
“Do your job in securing the different precincts and the cultural community while they address to the threat groups and completely support the campaign for peaceful and free elections,” he said.
He also reminded the troops to “prove their flexibility to adopt to the operational environment, commitment to duty and professionalism in selflessly serving the people and protecting the country wherever the call of duty brings them”.
Lawyer Jossil Macute, provincial election supervisor, said there is an “intense political rivalry and has reported sightings of the communist groups in the hinterlands while private armed groups wearing bonnets were also reported in his office harassing (people) in the barangays.”
Given the current situation, Macute said they intensified peace-keeping operations with joint checkpoints of the police and military.
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