Police Offices In Central Visayas To Initiate Peace Covenant Signing For Peaceful Polls Ahead

All police offices in Central Visayas have been directed to initiate peace rallies and peace covenant signing among political candidates to ensure the coming May polls is free from fraud and violence.

S/Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office (PRO-7), said the order was recently issued by their Regional Director C/Supt. Manuel Gaerlan as part of the measures to achieve safe and fair elections on May 9.

Lawas said they would tap other sectors that share the same advocacy like the church.

“We are not only calling for the candidates to support peace covenant signing and peace rallies but their supporters as well,” said Lawas during the recent ‘Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis’ (TSIP) Forum that tackled on election-related issues.

Lawas likewise urged candidates who are gun holders to voluntarily subject their guns to muzzle taping or for safe keeping at the police station as a sincere gesture on their part to shun violence.

“We want to have the peace covenant signing before March 25 as the date signals the start of the campaign period in the local level,” said Lawas.

PRO-7 has recommended 32 municipalities and cities in the region as election watchlist areas (EWAs) under Category 1, which indicates the presence of intense political rivalry in the locality which included intense verbal tussle between warring political candidates.

Out of the 32 EWAs, Cebu has the highest number at 18, followed by Bohol with eight, and six in Siquijor.

But the 32 EWAs may either be increased or decreased as validation is ongoing while the decision to declare these areas as hotspots would depend on the approval of the Regional Joint Security Committee 7 chaired by the regional Commission on Elections with the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as one of the members together with the PRO-7.

According to P/Supt. Rex Derilo, the acting chief of the Regional Intelligence Division, no reports so far were received on guns-for-hire groups that are here or any armed goons that may be employed by candidates as the police do not discount such possibility from happening.

“We are strengthening our intelligence monitoring to ensure that no transport of illegal guns are done or any political armed goons to be employed by unscrupulous politicians,” said Derilo. (rmn/fcr/PIA7)