CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- As preparations for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls officially started on Saturday, April 14, the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Luzon has already been placed under full alert to ensure peace and order in the region.
PRO-Central Luzon Regional Director Chief Superintendent Amador Corpus said at least 12,000 police personnel have been deployed all over Central Luzon to monitor the situation and implement measures in line with the barangay and SK elections.
“The PRO-3 (Central Luzon) is providing security personnel all over the region, especially in voting centers, to ensure the safe, credible and honest conduct of barangay and SK elections in Central Luzon,” he said.
Corpus added that Central Luzon police personnel are tasked to secure 41,954 established precincts, 19,542 clustered precincts and 2,830 voting centers in the region.
Aside from these, PRO-Central Luzon personnel will also be securing the total 8,504,022 registered voters in the region during the actual election day set on May 14 this year.
“As early as the start of April, we already established day and morning checkpoints at major thoroughfares and strategic areas, as well as maximum police presence in public places and convergence points as part of the security measures we are implementing,” he said.
Corpus added that the implementation of the gun ban that prohibits all gun owners from bringing their firearms outside of their homes is already in full swing and will take effect until May 22.
Last Saturday, Corpus said that a total 395 loose firearms of different types were already seized by PRO-Central Luzon in Nueva Ecija province, where six of them were confiscated during police operations while the remaining 389 were surrendered for safekeeping by gun owners.
Corpus said that the Philippine National Police and Commission on Elections are yet to identify the barangays that will be included in election hotspots list to provide additional security forces.