PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief Police General Benjamin Acorda, Jr. assured to optimize the function of the police, especially intension-identified areas to secure a peaceful and orderly 2023
Barangay-Sanguniang Kabataan Elections.
"Rest assured that the PNP will continue to serve and protect the community with the utmost integrity as PNP readiness to assume election duties transcends beyond police interventions and peacekeeping operations," General Acorda said.
The PNP Chief pertains to assuming the duty of an absent Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) due to security reasons.
"The PNP has a standby pool of 4,429 PNP personnel stationed in Bangsamoro Northern Mindanao, Calabrzon, (and are) trained to assume responsibilities as members of BEI," General Acorda said.
He underscored that the abovementioned areas are notorious for having threat groups, historical data of election-related incidents, intense political rivalry, and the presence of organized partisan armed
groups.
For areas identified as such, General Acorda said PNP will opt for additional police presence to complement the requirements provided by the Commanders from the ground.
Being the deputized security agency of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to lead a multi-tendency plan of actions supported by civil society organizations to guarantee a secure, accurate, free, and fair election, PNP has undertaken pre-emptive measures to achieve its mission.
Since the start of the election period on August 28,2023, General Acorda divulged that PNP has conducted a total of 251,592 checkpoint operations supervised by local poll officers to implement specific provisions and related COMELEC resolutions that prohibit certain acts such as carrying of firearms, and activities of partisan armed groups.
The PNP Chief said, on a daily basis, an average of 5,800 checkpoint operations are conducted in strategic locations by government and security forces including PNP, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Philippine Coast Guards.
"These operations have enforced the gun ban including other law enforcement initiatives that have resulted in the confiscation of 1,103 firearms, and 1,479 arrested violators as of October 15, 2023 as
a pre-emptive measure against the proliferation of unauthorized firearms. We accepted the surrender of 995 firearms and another 1,905 firearms for safekeeping," he said.
The top cop said the effective gun ban controls have succeeded in the groundwork for peaceful elections as reflected in the 8.4 percent reduction of index crime volume from January this year to October 15, 2023 compared to last year.
With this continuing hard work, PNP has earned an impressive 82 percent community satisfaction.