MANILA -- National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief Nicanor Bartolome said most of the voting precincts in the metro are currently peaceful as the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections begin.

In an interview with Bartolome at the Commonwealth Elementary School in Quezon City, he said they have deployed about 5,000 police personnel all over the metro to maintain peace and order.

He said he has yet to receive reports of any untoward incident and hoped that this will last for the entire day.

He meantime asked voters to "keep cool" and remain calm despite problems that may encounter in the voting process.

Bartolome also admitted they did not release the list of hotspot areas, but only augment forces in areas where there are many voters.

Voters in Barangay Commonwealth started to troop at Commonwealth Elementary School around 7 a.m. There are 53,000 registered voters in this area.

Some of the problems encountered by voters are difficulty in finding precincts, names not listed in voter's list, and difficulty in reading voter's list due to its unclear printing. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)