Only 4 cops to participate in absentee voting in WV
It seems members of the board of election inspectors (BEIs) would be on for an easy task, as they will carry out the absentee voting for members of the police force in Western Visayas.
This, as it was gathered that only four policemen under Police Regional Office (PRO) VI will be participating in the absentee voting today, April 29, at 10:00 a.m. at Camp Martin Delgado, Iloilo City.
These policemen are Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio of the Regional Headquarters Support Group (RHSG); Senior Supt. Ricardo dela Paz and Senior Insp. Alexis Manzano of the Regional Operations and Plans Division (ROPD); and PO1 Esmael Gandaroza.
While PNP has four, it was gathered that a total of 329 Philippine Army members based in Camp Peralta in Jamindan, Capiz, home of the 3rd Infantry Division, will be participating in the absentee voting.
Despite the “dismal” number, PNP Regional Director Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas explained that the said result was an offshoot of their current deployment.
“In the previous elections, there seem to be no need to apply for the absentee voting because the deployment of our policemen is very minimal. What I mean is, they were deployed in the precinct where they could cast their votes,” he said.
With the new automated election, Cuevas said that policemen were given additional roles like guard and secure the voting centers and PCOS machines.
“So our policemen, more or less 7 days before the election day, will be guarding the PCOS machines and the voting centers. They will be deployed in the voting centers where they will be assigned and not necessarily on the areas where it is possible for them to cast their votes,” the region’s top cop added.
He said that they could not go out from their assignments since they will be guarding the PCOS machines from the municipal hall going to the polling places and they could only withdrew once the machines will be returned.
He surmised that those who have applied for the absentee voting because they knew all along that they could not really participate in the actual day of voting.
Cuevas, meanwhile, said that the low turn-out of voters could also be true in other regions.
On guard
It is expected that policemen will be on guard for 3-5 days.
One policeman will be deployed for every voting center.
“And every voting center has security assistance desk which will be composed of CVOs, tanod, and other force multipliers, since we could not come up with the idea two policemen for every PCOS machine,” he added.
The PNP will also coordinate with the Phil. Army to patrol in some areas of the region.
Cuevas said that for towns where there is a dearth of personnel, far-flung barangays will be prioritized.
“In the first five kilometer radius, we would put the augmentation force from the regional headquarters, national support units, and from the training centers,” he added.
As it is, Cuevas said that all voting centers are covered.
Further, all municipalities will be clustered and for every cluster, there would be on team to do a roving patrol.
