Police monitoring 9 LGUs in Cebu for May 9 polls

CEBU CITY––While there are no “election watchlist areas” in Cebu province yet, police officials continued to monitor several localities in this city to ensure a peaceful and orderly elections on May 9.

Col. Engelbert Soriano, provincial police director, said they were closely watching nine to 12 local governments, especially those with a history of election violence.

Among these are the towns of Santa Fe and Madridejos on Bantayan Island and several areas on the Camotes Group of Islands.

Soriano said they had assigned several policemen in Camotes since the island is far and the response will be slow if something happens there.

Provincial elections supervisor Jerome Brillantes said they were also monitoring San Fernando town in the south because of its history of intense political rivalry.

Soriano and Brillantes attended the final meeting for the Provincial Joint Security Control Center at the Capitol in this city in preparation for the May 9 polls.

All election supervisors and police chiefs from the 51 towns and cities in Cebu attended the meeting. They augmentation forces from the Visayas Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines also joined them.

Brillantes said Cebu remained relatively peaceful as of the moment, and the Comelec was ready for election day.

They have started to transport vote-counting machines (VCMs) and other election paraphernalia to different towns and cities of Cebu.

Testing and sealing will be on May 6.

Soriano said some 400 policemen would be augmented for Cebu province in the upcoming elections.

lzb