A member of the Barangay Peace Action Keeping Team (BPAT) was killed and another was wounded in Buluan, Maguindanao on Monday, May 9, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said.
He said that a group of armed men suddenly fired at the roving security personnel at 7:40 a.m. in Barangay Poblacion.
Despite the incident, Año in an interview over GMA News insisted that the May 9, national and local polls were generally peaceful all over the country.
“Tuloy tuloy yung montioring natin (national and local election situation) nationwide. Ang ating mga kapulisan ay nagrereport ng mga nagaganap, so far naman ay ok (The monitoring is continuous nationwide. The police are constantly giving reports. So far the situation is okay),’’ Año said.
In Surigao del Norte, Año said that the local police nabbed more or less 12 armed men believed to be the supporters of an unidentified political candidate.
“All the rest naman ang namomonitor natin ay tahimik at maayos na nagaganap ang pagboto ng ating mga kababayan. May mga kunting glitch na kaya namang ayusin ng Comelec (Commission on Elections) ano (the areas where our countrymen are casting their votes that are monitored are peaceful and orderly. There are slight glitches that the Comelec can address),’’ he added.
He clarified that the uniformed personnel cannot just enter the polling precincts until the Comelec makes the request for their intervention.
“At yung mga maliliit na bagay na Comelec naman ang magsosolve ay pinababayaan na lang natin unless na tawagan yung ating mga kapulisan para tumugun sa anumang emergency (The police lets the Comelec the minor things they can resolve unless their assistance are needed in emergency cases),’’ Año maintained.
The DILG chief pointed out that the Philippine National Police (PNP) will file criminal charges with the Comelec also filing disqualification cases against political bets committing election-related infractions in the May 9, 2022 polls.
Año assured that the cases filed against the rogue political bets in the May 2022 polls will still push even after the national and local elections.
“Pwedeng maging ground din yan (cases filed) para mabawi kung sya man ay nanalo, disqualified pa rin sya kapagka mapatunayan na nagkasala talaga (election-related violations) sya (It may be a ground for a winning political candidate to be removed from office, he is still disqualified if it can be proven that he is really guilty),’’ he noted.
The DILG chief insisted that their assessment of the May poll situation is ‘generally peaceful’ even at the start of the election period on Jan. 9 until today (May 9) citing that the reported ‘election-related incidents’ are very few.
“Siguro if I’m not mistaken more or less mga 16 incidents lang ano yung election related incidents (Probably is I’m not mistaken there are only more or less 19 election-related incidents). If you will compare this with previous elections mababang mababa ito (this is very few) and hopefully ay matapos yung eleksyon ngayong araw, wala na sanang mga violence na magaganap (today’s elections will end up with no violent incidents),’’ Año said. (Chito A. Chavez)