(PNA file photo)
CEBU CITY – The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) on Tuesday said police commanders have been instructed to conduct an assessment in their areas of responsibility as the election period starts on Aug. 28.
Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of PRO-7, said police commanders have been instructed to “proactively conduct assessment” to know the personalities and candidates who may have sinister plots to disturb the peaceful holding of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in October.
He said the police have since conducted an assessment in April, thus the need to update it as the election nears.
“This is to check and strategically deploy our personnel,” Pelare said during the Open Line Forum in a hotel here.
He assured that the region’s police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine Coast Guard are 80 to 90 percent ready for the elections.
As of Tuesday, the police have identified 22 areas of concern and eight immediate areas of concern in Central Visayas.
But, according to Pelare, the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Region 7 is yet to issue its final assessment.
The classification was based on the records of the previous elections, he said.
“PRO-7 Regional Director Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin said he will base the adjustment in the deployment of our personnel what the Comelec-7 will come up on the final classification of those areas of concerns,” he added.
Meanwhile, Pelare said PRO-7 chief Aberin has ordered a tracker team to “neutralize” the remaining members of a private armed group (PAG) “attached to a politician” and still operating in Negros Oriental.
He assured the people in Central Visayas that their intelligence team are tracking down the remnants to prevent them from sowing violence to disturb the elections.
“Of the original number of the members of this private armed group that have been identified, half of the number are either neutralized, surrendered, or dead. It’s an ongoing fight against this private armed group, actually,” Pelare said.
As the PRO-7 recorded around 3,000 loose firearms seized for the first semester of this year alone, Pelare said they monitor backyard gun makers in the region as well as conduct strategic checkpoints until the BSKE in October. (PNA)
