MANILA, Philippines — With election-related violent incidents already taking place seven months before the midterm polls, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde will create special operations task groups to monitor developments in 7,926 barangays and 896 municipalities identified as areas of concern.
He said the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has the most number of election hotspots, followed by Eastern and Central Visayas.
Albayalde said the task groups would be headed by the chiefs of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO) in Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Western Mindanao and Eastern Mindanao.
“What we intend to do here is we will have a Special Operations Task Group not only during the conduct of elections but as early as now to address election issues especially harassment, violent incidents and killings like what happened in La Union,” the PNP chief said yesterday.
Albayalde was referring to the murder of mayor Alexander Buquing of Sudipen, La Union while his wife, vice mayor Wendy Joy Buquing, was wounded in an ambush last Oct. 1.
The couple’s driver Boni Depdepen and Police Officer 2 Rolando Juanbe, 42, were also killed in the attack along Bangar-Castro provincial road in Bangar, La Union.
“Actually we have already the list of areas of concern, election watchlist of areas,” Albayalde said.
The PNP chief said he would order police regional directors to closely monitor their areas for election-related concerns.
On the task groups, Albayalde said the DIPO chiefs are in the best position to head the group.
He noted that as part of security preparations for the midterm elections on May 13, 2019, Deputy Director General Archie Gamboa, deputy chief for operations and concurrent chairman of the oversight committee, would be evaluating the performance of the different commanders on the ground.
Priests in elections
With the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) to begin on Thursday, two officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said they are against their priests running for any government position.
CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Clergy chairman San Pablo, Laguna Bishop Buenaventura Famadico and CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI) Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos both said they are against priests vying for elective posts. While he has not heard of any priest who has plans of running in the election, Famadico reminded those who are planning to run that their job is to “spread the word of God and to guide the faithful.”
If priests run for an elective position, he interprets it as an indication that “we have failed in our task if we have to take over the role of the laity,” Famadico added.
Santos said he does not favor priests crossing the line and running for a government position.
“I am definitely against it, and never will I allow any of my priests to run for any elective office,” said Santos.
He reminded clergymen of Jesus Christ’s teaching that they cannot serve two masters.
Meanwhile, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) yesterday backed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decision to include “disqualification” question in the COC for those running in the 2019 elections.
LENTE executive director Rona Caritos said there is no reason for candidates for senator and local positions to hesitate answering the question if they have had a history of facing a legal case with perpetual disqualification penalty.
“For us, it is valid as this is just a question which expounds on the statement of the candidate in his COC as to his eligibility for the office he is running for,” Caritos said.
Former Comelec chair and top election lawyer Sixto Brillantes previously questioned the Comelec’s move to include the question in the COC, which he said can lead to automatic disqualification of candidates who will indicate an affirmative answer. – Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan