Over 60 political candidates in Region 11 have applied for personal protection from the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the May 9 local and national elections.
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Silo Jr., Police Regional Office in Davao Region (PRO-11) director, said the applications have been forwarded to the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, as of March 30.
“These applications from political candidates have been assessed by our team here in Davao Region and upon validation that there are indeed risks to their safety, we forward it to the headquarters for the Chief of Police’s approval,” Silo said.
PRO-11 assigns highly-trained police officers to approved applicants, Silo said.
“These officers will be heavily monitored, and they are required to report daily to the office. They have gone through training that qualifies them for the role— one of those is the guarantee that they will not be compromised by any self-serving intentions of their patrons,” he added.
PRO-11 data showed that eight municipalities in the region are identified as “election areas of concern” — Sta. Cruz, Matanao, Magsaysay, Malalag, Hagonoy, and Padada in Davao del Sur; Monkayo, Davao de Oro; New Corella in Davao del Norte.
Meanwhile, eight other municipalities were considered “election areas of immediate concern” –Kiblawan, Davao del Sur; Mabini, Maco, maragusan, Montevista, New Bataan, Pantukan in Davao de Oro; and Lupon, Davao Oriental.
Areas of concern are those with a history of election-related incidents in the last elections, possible employment of partisan armed groups, occurrence of politically motivated election-related incidents, and had been previously declared under the Commission on Elections (Comelec) control.
Areas of immediate concern, meanwhile, are those with serious armed threats.
There are no areas declared as under grave concern in the region, police said, while six cities and 27 municipalities in Davao Region are without any security concern.
Source: Philippines News Agency