The Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) anticipates peaceful midterm polls, while the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) assures all its personnel are ready for May 12.
“We conducted three CJSCC (City Joint Security Command Center) meetings. I hope that the fourth will be a victory celebration for the members,” lawyer John Paul Martin, Baguio election officer, said during the meeting Tuesday at the BCPO headquarters on Tuesday. “Ready na ang lahat (Everybody is ready).”
Baguio has 166,416 registered voters, 60 voting centers, and 232 clustered precincts.
The BCPO, in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, has enlisted volunteers who will be on duty at assistance desks to assist voters in finding their precinct numbers and sequence numbers.
The teachers have been trained and provided with refresher training on what they need to do before, during, and after the voting, the Comelec said.
“Our goal, if all machines will work smoothly and the electoral board will transmit immediately after they close the voting at 7 p.m., is to proclaim the winning candidates in the city level by 9 or 10 p.m.,” Martin said.
The CJSCC also led the signing of a memorandum of agreement with volunteer groups — Integrated Bar of the Philippines, University of the Cordilleras Political Science Society, Upline Movement, Kabbalay Community, and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting — to help manage the assistance desks.
PDL voting
Meanwhile, Jail Inspector Regino Castillo, chief of the administrative division at the Baguio City Jail Male Dorm, said there are 66 male and 24 female persons deprived of liberty (PDL) who will cast their votes.
Martin said there are special electoral board (EB) members assigned at the jail to administer the PDLs’ voting.
“No PDL needs to go out or be assisted to go out to cast their votes because they will be provided their official ballots inside the jail, do the shading inside the jail, and the special EB will bring the ballots of the six Baguio voters at their precincts for feeding to the automatic counting machine,” he said.
Peaceful polls
“We are confident in maintaining peace and order because historically, Baguio is known as a place where there are no untoward incidents as far as the election period is concerned,” BCPO Director Col. Ruel Tagel said in an interview on the sidelines of the CJSCC meeting.
He added that they have plans and made preparations, in compliance with orders from the higher headquarters of the Philippine National Police, one of which is to augment the security manpower in Abra province.
Ninety BCPO officers were sent to Abra as reserve forces in polling centers.
“We have already conducted, with the Comelec, three CJSCC meetings, and we have discussed our preparedness plans with the other agencies. Through the CJSCC meetings, we have also seen what other agencies lack and how each can complement the others to ensure a successful, peaceful, and orderly national and local election,” Tagel said. (PNA)
