More cops sent to Samar to ensure peaceful polls

TACLOBAN CITY—More policemen were deployed Thursday to Samar to help ensure peaceful elections in the province.

Brigadier Gen. Bernard Banac, the police regional director, said 244 more policemen would be stationed in Catbalogan City, the provincial capital.

“We will send additional forces to assist our people in that part of Eastern Visayas so that we can maintain peaceful, orderly, and safe national and local elections,” he said in an interview after a sendoff at the Philippine National Police regional headquarters in Palo town in Leyte.

“We are not saying that there will be violence, but it is important that we are there first as a preventive action and that we give assurance to our people that they are safe to come out and vote in the upcoming election,” he added.

Last March 1, 230 policemen were deployed to Samar and stationed in Calbayog City for a “peacekeeping mission” related to the May 9 elections.

Banac assured the people of Samar and the rest of Eastern Visayas that they would make sure that the conduct of the elections would be free from violence.

He said the Philippine National Police, under the leadership of Police General Dionardo Carlos, was ready to deploy augmentation forces in areas considered a potential “hot spot.”

While the Commission on Elections in the region has yet to issue the list of the “areas of concern” for this year’s elections, Samar province has always been disturbed by violence in previous political exercises.

“We have a mandate to maintain and keep the peace and we are committed to ensuring that there will be no election-related incidents (in Samar and other parts of the region),” Banac said.

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