Policemen and soldiers swarmed the town of Tubaran in Lanao del Sur as part of the security measures in the conduct of special elections in 12 of its barangays on Tuesday, May 24.
Police Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, director for Operations and the deputy commander of the Philippine National Police special task force on national and local elections, said they also placed the entire town of Tubaran under full alert status starting 4 p.m. on Monday, especially that armed men believed to be supporters of rival mayoralty candidates, were monitored in the past days.
"According to our monitoring, there have been sightings of armed men in some areas, and my directive to our personnel on the ground is to ensure that these armed men are not given a single opportunity to carry out their nefarious plans, "said De Leon, who is currently in Tubaran town supervising the security for the special elections.
"We have sufficient troops here in Tubaran, which were bolstered by our counterparts from the Armed Forces of the Philippines," he added.
The special elections will benefit more than 8,000 registered voters who were unable to cast their vote on May 9 due to serious security issues, which prompted the Commission on Elections to declare failure of elections.
At least 600 policemen and 400 soldiers were deployed in Tubaran town. Almost 200 of the policemen came from the PNP's elite Special Action Force while at least 52 were tasked to act as Board of Elections Inspectors.
De Leon said the Bureau of Fire Protection, with their firetrucks and personnel, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), with their transport vehicles, were tapped to bolster the deployment in Tubaran town.