THE Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PRO-COR) is set to recall all active police personnel in the region providing security duties for the vice governors and below.
This was part of the marching order given by PRO-COR director Chief Superintendent Edward Carranza during the Regional Joint Security Control Center Command Conference held at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Compound attended by the Comelec Cordillera, Department of Education (DepEd), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
"The recall order for all active policemen rendering security protection services for duly elected vice governors down will take effect on April 13, 2018 ordering them to report back to the regional command. This is to prevent policemen having family ties to would-be Barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) candidates to have some influence during the electoral process," Carranza said.
The security measure was in response to previous experiences in the past by the PNP, Comelec and AFP of some policemen influencing the process of elections.
Aside from the recall of police personnel, Carranza ordered all police directors to meet with their respective government legal officials and discuss measures to be made to prevent the filing of cases against designated security personnel during the election process.
"In response to the AFP's concern on possible cases to be filed against them and the policemen by certain individuals while performing their security duties related to the elections, all city and provincial directors in Cordillera are ordered to discuss with their city and provincial fiscals and prosecutors the dismissal of cases to be filed against them if there would be no probable cause," Carranza reiterated.
Comelec-Cordillera director Julius Torres however assured the AFP, PNP and DepEd personnel of legal assistance to be provided for by the commission once they would be needing while in the performance of their duties to prevent this form of harassment.
Carranza also suggested the creation of a contingency and scenario planning between the PNP, AFP, DepEd and Comelec to respond to possible actions needed to be done during the electoral exercise.
During the command conference, the AFP and the PNP reported the present Regional Peace and Order situation and security concerns, while the Comelec assistant regional director lawyer Vanessa Roncal provided a lecture on the implementation of the gun ban and checkpoint starting April 14 to May 21.
This aside from a lecture by election officer lawyer Romeo Aguilar Jr. on preliminary investigation and information on the transfer and detail of security personnel by Baguio City election officer lawyer John Paul Martin.