PNP fields elite troops to 6 provinces

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Director General Ricardo Marquez, chief of the Philippine National Police, has announced here the deployment of special operations groups to secure six provinces identified as election watch list areas (EWAs) for the May 9 local and national elections.

The regional special operations task groups (RSOTGs) were sent to augment the police units operating in the provinces of Pangasinan, Masbate, Negros Oriental, Western Samar, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

The groups were also deployed during the 2013 midterm elections, which involved 15 priority provinces.

Marquez has been going around the different provinces to evaluate police readiness for the May 9 elections.

“We are doing this to help create an environment that will be conducive for the holding of peaceful and orderly elections,” he told Pangasinan police chiefs during a meeting here on Feb. 14.

In 2013, Pangasinan was augmented with policemen from the PNP regional public safety battalion and the police Special Action Force.

Marquez, a former Ilocos regional police director, has appointed Senior Supt. Marlou Chan, deputy regional director for administration, as RSOTG commander in Pangasinan. Chan used to serve as the police provincial director.

Pangasinan’s inclusion in the EWAs this year was due to the poll-related violence in the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections and the “intense partisan rivalry among and between candidates in the province” in this year’s polls.

Among the hotly contested political races in the province are the gubernatorial fight between Gov. Amado Espino Jr.’s son, Board Member Amado Espino III, and former Rep. Mark Cojuangco.

The congressional race in the fifth district is a contest between the incumbent governor and Cojuangco’s wife, reelectionist Rep. Kimi Cojuangco.

Senior Supt. Edgar Allan Okubo, police provincial director, reported that the number of shooting incidents in the province had decreased because of intensified police presence through the setting up of checkpoints.

Marquez challenged provincial police officials to aim for zero election-related incidents this year to remove Pangasinan from the EWA list in 2019.

Marino Salas, provincial election supervisor, said the inclusion of Pangasinan in the EWAs was for the good of the province.

“Last elections, we were already in the EWA and there were several police and Army personnel deployed here. There were no incidents that disrupted the orderly conduct of the elections here,” Salas said.

One consideration for the province’s inclusion was its big voting population. Pangasinan has six congressional districts and has more than 1.7 million voters, making it the country’s third vote-rich province, next to Cebu, which has 2.7 million voters, and Cavite, 1.8 million voters.