THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas said the ongoing national and local elections in the region have so far been peaceful despite the shooting incidents in San Fernando town and Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu.
Police Brigadier General Roque Eduardo Vega, chief of PRO-Central Visayas, said in a press conference Monday, May 9, that they have not recorded any election-related violent incidents from 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday, May 9, based on the report of the Regional Election Monitoring Action Center (Remac).
Police Lieutenant Colonel Leoncio Baliguat Jr., deputy chief of the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division, said the shooting incident in Olango Island that resulted in the killing of Barangay Tungason Councilor Jose “Sadam” Quiros is not election-related.
Baliguat said they have identified a suspect in Quiros’ killing.
He added that the strafing incident in San Fernando town is still being investigated and they could not say yet whether it was election-related or not.
“As far as tagging as suspected election-related incident is concerned, it could not still be tagged as such considering that in tagging the same, the victim should be a candidate, an election official, a supporter and a direct family member of the candidate,” said Baliguat.
For his part, lawyer Dennis Ausan, Comelec director, said the 8,129 clustered precincts in four provinces in Central Visayas -- Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Negros Oriental -- have so far been able to open before 6 a.m. Monday.
Three clustered precincts, however, have encountered a technical problem that resulted in a delay in the voting.
The problem was encountered in a precinct in Duero, Bohol and two other precincts in Lazi, Siquijor.
There was also delay in the voting in polling precincts at Apas National High School in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.
The problems, however, were already solved, Ausan added.
“Based on our protocols, we allow our voters to cast their votes while our technical support staff had ready exerted all efforts to have the issue fixed, and eventually wala namang problema kasi naduon na yung mga replacement,” he said.
Ausan believes that the voter turnout this election will be high as compared to that in the previous polls, noting that hundreds of voters have started to line up as early as 5 a.m. Monday.
In Cebu, 3.2 million registered voters are expected to cast their vote. (AYB/LMY)