CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – More than eight thousand policemen will be deployed in various ‘hot spot areas’ for the 2019 midterm elections, all over Northern Mindanao.
Police Regional Office 10 states that cop augmentation started earlier in order to secure peace within areas identified as hot spot by the Commison on Elections (COMELEC), due to intense political rivalry, presence of terrorist and potential private armed groups in the region.
In an interview, PRO-10 spokesperson Lt. Colonel Surki Serenias quoted that most of these deployment will be on three days before the elections.
Particularly, police operations are more focused on ‘critical-political’ areas in Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental.
Last week, police have reported three village councilors were ambushed in the town of Concepcion, Misamis Occidental.While investigation is still underway, the motive of the crime was established as politically motivated since these officials are active supporters of a mayoralty candidate in the said town.
Additionally, supporters of rival mayoralty candidates in Salvador, Lanao del Norter were also caught by the police in a shooting incident while both parties crossed ways on thier campaign sorties on March.
