Police, military, Comelec hold coordinating meeting
ELECTION PREPARATION
LINGAYEN–The Provincial Joint Security Control Center (PJSCC), composed of the police, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec), held a coordinating conference on March 26 to discuss security and campaign matters related to the May 13 elections.
One of the main issues discussed was the request of a mayoralty candidate of Binalonan to place the town under Comelec control.
Senior Supt. Marlou Chan, police provincial director, said the request coming from the Liberal Party candidate of Binalonan, coursed through the Office of Provincial Elections Supervisor Marino Salas, cited a series of election-related violence.
Salas expressed his reluctance to act on the request since there are a lot of factors to be considered before placing an area under Comelec control as it would mean the Comelec will have to take over the town or assign an official to manage town affairs, including the day-to-day government functions.
“Last resort dito sa lalawigan natin na maglagay tayo ng mga lugar sa Comelec control,” Salas said.
The PJSCC decided to put Binalonan for the meantime under the list of “priority areas of concern” pending the decision of the Comelec higher officials on the case.
As an area of concern, Chan said appropriate security measures can be immediately implemented in the town.
Chan noted that Binalonan was not among the 12 local governments in Pangasinan earlier declared as areas of concern.
The 12 are Bolinao, Infanta, Agno, Urbiztondo, Bugallon, Malasiqui, Rosales, Balungao and San Manuel towns and the cities of Alaminos, Dagupan and San Carlos.
Pangasinan has been listed as one of the priority provinces of the police in the coming election on account of the number of shooting incidents that happened not only in the last election but also in previous ones.
OTHER MATTERS
The PJSCC also took up the deployment of forces, especially when the Comelec starts to bring in Precinct Optical Count Scan (PCOS) machines.
The PCOS need to be fully secured from point of origin to the designated hub centers in Alaminos, Dagupan and Urdaneta cities, then from these hub centers to the different cities and town, and finally to the precincts.
“We will ask for more personnel given the fact that we do not have enough men to do this,” Chan said.
The PJSCC also discussed operations that may be conducted by the Comelec, police, AFP and other deputized agencies against illegal campaign posters and those posted outside the common poster areas.
The local Comelec earlier admitted that posters of candidates have mushroomed outside those prescribed by the poll body.—with report from Johanne R. Macob
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