LEGAZPI CITY—Authorities have sent a battalion of policemen belonging to elite units to Masbate to prevent the growing tensions in areas tagged election hot spots in the island-province.
Senior Insp. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Bicol regional police spokesperson, said members of the reactivated Regional Service-Oriented Task Group (RSOTG) were instructed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Philippine National Police to prevent political violence that could erupt in the run-up to the May 9 elections.
At least seven people have been killed since January, when the election season started and Comelec imposed the gun ban, in what police said were politically motivated attacks in the towns of San Jacinto, Placer and Monreal and in Masbate City.
At least 17 people were arrested and 27 firearms were seized in various checkpoints in Bicol since Jan. 10, police said.
Calubaquib said the special task group was created to ensure peace in the province, which the Comelec declared among the priority areas on its election watch list. It is composed of at least 300 policemen from Bicol’s six provinces, the Regional Public Safety Battalion, and a company of the Special Action Force from the PNP national headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Another unit from the Philippine Army would join the RSOTG to beef up the police unit in province.
Chief Supt. Augusto Marquez, Bicol police director, named Senior Supt. Lito Pitallano, deputy regional police director for operations, the commander of the RSOTG.
The unit will also conduct campaigns to recover loose firearms and go after armed men protecting politicians, including communist rebels.
During the 2013 election campaign, the Task Force Masbate was formed to oversee the security operations in Masbate due to intense rivalries among political clans and the presence of armed men and rebels.
At least 40 villages in 18 towns in Masbate have been placed under Comelec control. Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon