Not enough cops to secure Lapu-Lapu

POLICE in Lapu-Lapu City on Friday said they lacked  manpower to secure vote-count machines for the May elections.

“We need more authorities to be deployed to polling centers to ensure security,” said Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, chief of police of Lapu-Lapu City.

He came from a multi-agency conference where security arrangements for the May 13 elections were discussed.

He said based on data provided by the Commission on Elections, there will be 199 clustered precincts in the city, including Olango island. If each PCOS machine needs to be assigned two security escorts each, the 415 personnel of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office will not be enough for this.

The city was earlier identified by the Comelec and the Police Regional Office-7 as among the election hot spots in Central Visayas.

Lawas said he has recommended that the city’s security status be downgraded as he has already talked to parties involved in the Punta Engaño incident in the 2010 elections where two people were killed.

“We signed a peace pact and they promised to  cooperate to maintain peace and order in their barangay,” Lawas said. /Correspondent Norman Mendoza