MANILA, Philippines — The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said that they were able to secure the 2022 national and local elections within their jurisdiction, assuring that there would be no let-up in the security measures.
In a statement on Wednesday, NCRPO listed its accomplishments since the start of the election season last January 9 — from checkpoints to the gun ban implementation, and other operations that ensured safe and credible elections.
“As the period culminates, a total of 30,643 checkpoints were conducted by both PNP-Comelec (Commission on Elections) and PNP-AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). There were 22,937 PNP-Comelec and 7,706 PNP-AFP-Comelec checkpoints conducted all over Metro Manila,” NCRPO’s Public Information Office said.
“Other police operations were also intensified such as service of arrest warrants, search warrant, police patrol responses, Oplan Bakal, and buy-bust operations,” it added.
According to NCRPO, from January 9 to June 8, which was the last day of the gun ban implementation, a total of 1,313 police operations were conducted. This includes the serving of 12 search warrants, two arrest warrants, and the conduct of 912 patrol responses, 61 extra checkpoints, and 326 Oplan Bakal and Oplan Sita responses.
There were also 671 firearms recovered during the implementation of the gun ban, which NCRPO believes helped in the prevention of crime and election-related violence. Of the 671 firearms, 402 are short firearms, 19 are long firearms, and 250 are gun replicas and improvised firearms.
NCRPO also noted that securing the elections did not end on election day, as police officers also monitored the protests that came after results started coming into the servers.
“On its actual day, the National and Local Elections in Metro Manila was generally peaceful, however, the responsibilities of police officers did not stop the day after. Instead, law enforcers amplified post-election operations including the maintenance of peace and order during mass protests launched by different activists who expressed their discontentment with the poll results,” NCRPO said.
NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Felipe Natividad asked officers to continue working to minimize threats even after the election season.
“With these inspiring accomplishments, I commend the dedication and commitment of our men and women in NCRPO. Nonetheless, I enjoin all of you to work even harder and protect our people from all forms of threat,” he said.
Earlier, the Philippine National Police also gave a report regarding the apprehensions made during the elections season, which showed that 3,631 individuals have been arrested during the 3,416 gun ban operations from January 9 to early Wednesday morning.
Most of the incidents happened inside the National Capital Region (NCR), at 1,241. NCR also topped in terms of having the most number of individuals arrested for gun ban violations at 1,322.
READ: Gun ban on as election period begins