Soccsksargen, ARMM police prepare for barangay polls

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — The police have started monitoring southern towns where big clans will be competing for leadership in the village polls.

Chief Inspector Aldrin Gonzales, spokesman of the Police Regional Office 12, said Sunday they have enlisted the help of religious communities in ensuring orderly barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in central Mindanao on May 14.

"All of our security efforts are coordinated closely with the Commission on Elections," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said their regional director, Chief Superintendent Marcelo Morales, will personally oversee the enforcement of the election gun ban, which began Saturday.

"He already warned all personnel of PRO-12 of the serious consequences of carrying firearms when not on duty and not in proper uniform. Civilians in Region 12 shall be subjected strictly to the prohibition," Gonzalez said.

Off-duty officers and rank-and-file personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are covered by the ban too.

The Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also started enforcing on Saturday its election-related security measures in five southern provinces under its jurisdiction.

The PRO-ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, director of PRO-ARMM, said Sunday their units in all five provinces have disseminated to the public the details of the Comelec ban on carrying of firearms weeks before the election period started.

“Our municipal and provincial police commands shall exhaust all means of ensuring clean and peaceful elections in the autonomous region. These measures are to be done under the watch of Comelec,” Mijares said.

Mijares said their security efforts are supported by the inter-agency ARMM peace and order council, chaired by the region’s chief executive, Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. said Sunday that the military Western Mindanao Command will help maintain law and order in the autonomous region during the campaign period and on actual polling day. Galvez has been named the next chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and will assume command on April 24.

“We are not taking chances. Mindanao is still under a Mindanao-wide martial law. That gives us more muscles to flex to ensure there will be peaceful and clean elections on May 14,” Galvez said.

Among the areas now under tight surveillance by authorities are barangays in Sulu, one of the poorest provinces in the country, where clan rivalry has extended to the barangay and SK eelctions.