Cops with kin running on May 9 polls reshuffled
BANNED FROM CAMPAIGNING
LINGAYEN — Thirty-eight police personnel in 44 towns and cities in the province that have relatives running for elective posts in the May 9 polls in their areas of assignments have been pulled out and reassigned to other stations.
P/Sr. Supt. Edgar Alan Okubo, officer-in-charge as police director, said the reshuffling was adopted as a policy to ensure that no police personnel would use their position to campaign and promote the candidacy of their relatives.
Okubo said covered by this policy are police personnel regardless of their positions or ranks whose relations with candidates are up to fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity.
He also clarified that those whose relatives won in their bids will be able to return to their old posts after May 9 but those whose relatives lost will not be transferred back to their old posts.
Okuba added that all personnel have already been warned about favoring certain candidates and all complaints about them will be investigated.
Meanwhile, P/ Superintendent Jackie Candelario, deputy police director for operations at the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office, said the signing of peace covenants among candidates for the May 9 polls is bearing good results as no poll-related incident has been recorded so far.
In a Bombo Radyo Dagupan interview, he said peace covenants have been done in the 44 towns and four cities in Pangasinan as part of police preparations for safe and fair elections of 2016.
More than 20 areas were listed under election watch list areas or hotspots in the coming polls due to history of poll-related violence and intense political rivalry.
While there were shooting incidents reported, these were not poll-related, Candelario said. He said the gun slay of a barangay captain recently in a cockpit arena in Asingan was not validated as poll-related.
He credited the participation of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the Church, Commission on Election, and other civic groups. (Tita Roces)
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