By Doren Manzanero
Eagle News Service
(Eagle News) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) described as “relatively peaceful” the national and local elections held on Monday, May 9, 2022.
In a press briefing, Comelec Chair Saidamen Pangarungan concurred with the assessment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) that the May 9 polls is generally peaceful, as compared to previous years.
“As confirmed by our security partners, yung nakaraang election 2019, ang number of incidents of violence was 60…ngayon ang nai-report lang ay 15 incidents. So I will still consider this election as relatively peaceful compared to the elections in 2019,” Pangarungan said.
[As confirmed by our security partners, in the 2019 elections, the number of violence incidents was 60…now only 15 incidents were reported, so I will still consider this election as relatively peaceful compared to the elections in 2019.]
AFP Spokesperson Ramon Zagala said that the recorded 15 election-related violent including shooting incidents, armed clashes, ambush, indiscriminate firing, ballot snatching, grenade throwing, and explosions, were mostly in the Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces.
“Overall, the security situation is good, in terms of our people being able to vote, that there is continuity of the electoral process,” Zagala said.
He noted that 15 “is a good low number”, and hopes that the situation will continue to the end of the day.
Meanwhile, the PNP recorded 16 election-related validated incidents, which is a little bit lower compared to previous years.
“The PNP could say that the election happening now is generally peaceful,” PNP Deputy Director for Operations Allan Nobleza said, noting that the incidents recorded were only “isolated cases that happened particularly in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and in Maguindanao.”
He clarified that the 15 validated cases encompassed the entire election period starting January 9, and does not yet include incidents that occured on May 9.
– Failure of elections limited to one voting center only –
When asked on the possibility of declaring failure of elections, Pangarungan said that this might be limited only to a particular voting center and not on an entire town or area.
“So far wala akong nakikita na malaking area na ide-declare ng failure ng elections [So far I do not see failure of elections being declared in a large area],” he said, noting that they have been monitoring the security situation for the whole day.
“Ang nakikita ko lang na maaaring may problema ay iyong sa Malabang National High School na may isang namatay, and there is an allegation na ang mga balota daw, they were filled up by one particular candidate sa mayor,” he added.
[The only thing which could be problematic is the incident at Malabang National High School where one person died, and there is an allegation that the ballots were filled up by one particular mayoralty candidate.]
Panganguran emphasized that everything will depend on how the Comelec En Banc will apprise and rule on the petition that will be filed before it.
(Eagle News Service)