The Philippine National Police (PNP) denied on Wednesday, May 11, allegations based on a viral video circulating in the social media that their personnel engaged in election sabotage in Cotabato City.
While the director of the Cotabato City police admitted that some cops assigned as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) indeed tore some ballots, PNP Officer-IN-Charge Police Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao said the elections were unused and were supposed to be destroyed under the rules.
"The PNP City Director of Cotabato City, Police Colonel Rommel L. Javier has satisfactorily explained that after the casting of votes/cut off time at about 7 p.m. of May 9, 2022 in the respective Precincts, the PNP BEI members were mandated to tear up the unused blank Official Ballots Sheets," said Danao in a statement.
He said this was based on the Commission on Elections Omnibus Election Code – Article 17 of Section 204 entitled Disposition of unused ballots at the close of the voting hours.
Based on Javier's explanation, the destruction of the ballots was witnessed by Mr. Arfaj-Erven P. Ahmad, the Designated Election Supervisor Officer (DESO) and Watchers from parties of OneCotabato and UBJP.
But in the video, it was seen that some of the ballots were already shaded.
Police Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Alba, chief information officer of the PNP, said this will be investigated.
"This incident is presently being investigated by PRO BAR (Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Administrative Region. We will be hearing updates from them," he said.
Reports from Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region indicate that the video footages were taken at the Datu Ayunan Elementary School, MB Kalanganan, Cotabato City where PNP personnel served as members of the Special Electoral Board (SBEI).
Their designation as SBEI for Clustered Precincts Number 69 (Precinct Numbers 0215A, 0215B, 0215C & 0216A) was authorized by Atty. Nasroding M. Mustapha, Cotabato City Election Officer.
Danao then urged the public to be circumspect in dealing with information from unverified sources.
"We wish to reiterate our advice to the public to be wary of disinformation circulating in social media especially during this election period. We have fact-checked video footages circulating on the internet wherein police officers were shown tearing some election forms," said Danao.
"We hope this clarification and verified information puts this matter to rest and further enlightened the public of the election rules and procedures," he added.