- Bangsamoro region requests PRO XI for cops to serve as election inspectors
AT LEAST 150 personnel from the Police Regional Office (PRO) XI were deployed to Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao on Friday, Oct. 20, to serve as board of election inspectors (BEI) for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on Oct 30.
In an interview on Friday, PRO XI spokesperson Major Catherine Dela Rey explained that BARMM requested all regional police offices in Mindanao to send an augmentation force to ensure a peaceful and orderly voting process.
Dela Rey said the police officers were deployed early to familiarize themselves with their assigned areas.
The spokesperson added sending impartial police officers to BARMM will hopefully eliminate suspicions of influence-peddling and fraud. She explained that teachers who served in previous elections were also relatives of candidates.
The Commission on Election Davao Region (Comelec) XI already trained the 150 handpicked police officers to fulfill their responsibilities properly. Comelec XI Acting director Gay Enumerables led the training herself.
Moreover, the regional police office will deploy more than 6,000 PNP personnel across Davao Region for BKSE.
“I would like to remind the policemen of Davao City Police Office and all of Police Regional Office XI to be non-partisan in the exercise of the election process,” regional director Brig Gen Alden Delvo said.
“They already know that we already have guidance and, of course, in every election, we have to keep it safe,” he added.
In a separate interview on Friday, Brig Gen Kirby John Kraft, director of Police Regional Office (PRO) 13, said they will also deploy more or less 6,700 personnel for the BKSE 2023.
