Comelec to assign 7 cops in poll place if need arises

TWO police officers will be deployed in every polling place in Cebu Province to ensure the safety and security of public school teachers who will be tasked to safeguard ballots during the midterm elections this May.

But Jerome Brillantes, acting Cebu provincial election supervisor, said they would deploy an additional five police officers to augment the existing two if the need arose.

He said the need to assign more police officers in each polling station stemmed from the concerns of public school teachers in San Fernando who refused to serve during the elections following the murders of elected officials last month.

“What was presented during the security details was to deploy two police officers in every polling place and (they) would conduct foot patrols in the polling areas. But we could provide additional personnel, but on a case-to-case basis,” Brillantes said in Cebuano.

He said he and his staff visited San Fernando on Saturday, Feb. 9, to assure public school teachers who’d be serving the local polls there that they had nothing to worry about on the start of Election Day. He told them their security was of “utmost importance.”

Brillantes said the southern town had been gripped with fear following the assassinations of local officials.

However, he said not all public school teachers in the town were afraid to serve in the May elections. But he also admitted he couldn’t force those who refused.

Last month, two councilor candidates, reelectionist Reneboy Dacalos and Magsico Barangay Captain Johnny Arriesgado, were gunned down separately by unidentified assailants.

On Jan. 22, Mayor Lakambini Reluya and five of her companions were ambushed by armed men while on board a van in Talisay City.

Although Reluya and two of her bodyguards survived, her husband and running mate Ricardo Jr. and two of her staff were killed.

Meanwhile, San Fernando election officials have postponed the signing of their peace covenant.

Renante Angcos, municipal election officer, said he and the town’s police chief agreed to put it off because tension was still high among the town’s political groups.

After the mayor recovered from the incident, she told police her political opponents were behind the attack.

Reluya’s lone opponent for the mayoralty, businessman Ruben Feliciano, denied any involvement in the ambush. (Jolissa Mae Taboada, USJ-R Intern, JKV)

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