Alert level down

The security sector is gearing up for the special polls to be held on May 14 in 11 towns in the Visayas and western Mindanao where the Commission on Elections had declared a failure of elections.

Two days after the May 9 national elections, the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Wednesday downgraded its alert status to blue, except for the 11 towns where the heightened alert level remained.

“The marching orders are very clear to them (troops) that until such time that the Comelec so declares that it’s over, it’s only then we will slacken our security positioning in those areas,” Lt. Gen. Glorioso Miranda, acting AFP chief of staff, said on Thursday.

Special elections will be held in 52 clustered precincts in those 11 towns on Saturday, which would allow 17,657 registered citizens to vote.

In Camp Aguinaldo on Thursday, Miranda thanked the 125,000-strong AFP for the successful securing of Monday’s electoral exercise.