The Southern Police District (SPD) deployed 3,726 personnel to secure the grand rallies of UniTeam, Angat Buhay Pilipino and Team Cayetano in Parañaque, Makati and Taguig on May 7.
“To Team SPD and all members of the security team, thank you for your cooperation and perseverance. You have again proven your dedication to duty, country and to the Filipino people. I commend everyone for the splendid performance. Congratulations!” said SPD director Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg.
The 3,726 members of the security team came from the Philippine National Police and augmented personnel from support units and allied forces.
According to the SPD, for the UniTeam grand rally led by presidential bet Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte, a total of 1,556 personnel were deployed composed of 1,093 PNP personnel and 463 from other agencies and allied forces.
At the Angat Buhay “miting de avance” of presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo and vice presidential bet Kiko Pangilinan, 1,139 were deployed composed of 740 PNP personnel and 399 from other agencies like Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
Team Cayetano led by Taguig mayoral bet Lani Cayetano held their “miting de avance” at Arca South in Barangay Western Bicutan. For the event, SPD deployed 980 individuals composed of 705 PNP personnel and 275 from other agencies.
There were also 51 from the command group and monitoring secretariat.
Before the events took place, the overall security deployment plan particularly the ingress and egress of the venue as well as the traffic plan was laid out properly to ensure that no untoward incident would occur.
The Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) has been created to focus on the investigation of significant Election Related Incidents (ERIs) that may happen.
"Yesterday, was the last day of the grueling campaign period for the aspirants, but for us as police officers, our task does not end there, because the transport of Accountable Election Forms, (AEFs), as well as the final sealing and testing of Voting Counting Machines (VCM’s) in some polling centers, still continues. We will maintain our safeguard to secure polling centers, especially to our Filipino people on their right to vote and to achieve a zero-election-related incident,” said Macaraeg.