Around 60,000 police personnel have been deployed for election-related work by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said.
Interior undersecretary Jonathan Malaya shared 16,820 police are assigned for election duties: security, threat assessment, as well as the delivery of election paraphernalia.
Another 41,965 police officers were stationed in over 5,431 checkpoints in the whole country.
“Para masiguro ang kapasidad ng PNP para magresponde sa kahit ano mang posibleng karahasan sa araw ng eleksyon, mayroon din tayong mobile force units sa bawat probinsya na naka-assign na rin po sa election duties,” he said in a public briefing.
“Kasama din sa tungkulin ng ating kapulisan ang threat assessment sa isang lugar, kung mataas ang threat assessment, if there is an intense political rivalry, nagdedeploy din ang PNP ng additional police officer from the local police station or the local force battalion for extra security,” he added.
A contingency plan is in place should there be lawless elements planning to disrupt the national and local elections. — Ronald Espartinez