BACOLOD CITY – The Commission on Elections has allowed 1,279 Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in two jails here to vote in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 30.
Four-hundred two are from the Metro Bacolod District Jail (MBDJ)-Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) in Barangay Singcang-Airport and 877 are from the MBDJ-Male Dormitory Annex in Barangay Handumanan.
Kathrina Trinio-Caña, Comelec-Bacolod, said that a support staff will facilitate the collection of ballots from the PDLs from their voting precincts to the jails.
PDLs will be allowed to vote from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. to give time for the Comelec staff to transport ballots from the jails to the voting precincts, she added.
Caña said that PDLs have been allowed to vote in the local elections in 2022 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said that they have not identified any area of concern here based on the assessment in their recent meeting with the police, military, and other deputized agencies in relation to BSKE.
Caña said that there’s no political rivalry and presence of armed group and New People’s Army (NPA) in barangays here that could affect the BSKE.
On May 19, the military, police, and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Western Visayas inked a resolution declaring Bacolod as insurgency-free, following series of successful peace and order initiatives that helped improve the peace and security situation in this city.
Caña also said that there has been no apprehension or violator of the Comelec gun ban since its implementation.