BALANGA CITY, Bataan -- Security preparations are in place to ensure a peaceful and orderly conduct of the mid-term elections in the province on Monday, the Bataan Police Provincial Office said on Saturday.
Col. Villamor Tullao, Bataan police director, said the full force of the provincial command has been dispatched to secure 167 polling centers in 11 towns and one city in the province and to maintain peace before, during, and after voting and canvassing.
Some members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the police’s Special Action Force and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion have been tapped as reinforcement.
Tullao said most of the vote counting machines (VCMs) have been tested and sealed and now fully secured.
Gilda Rodrigo, assistant provincial election supervisor, said only 10 VCMs have remained untested and unsealed due to the problem involving the SD (Secure Digital) cards.
She said there are 695 primary or principal VCMs and another 73 contingency VCMs in Bataan to serve 545,507 registered voters in 167 polling centers in 237 barangays.
On the other hand, there are 3,605 established polling precincts and 695 clustered precincts in the province divided into two congressional districts.
“We expect the cards to be delivered any time today (Saturday) and we will proceed immediately with the final testing and sealing. There are no other concern and we see no more hitch for the voting to proceed regularly on Monday,” Rodrigo said.
Col. Ricardo Santiago, chief of Police Community Relations, said police are conducting regular checkpoints and inspections in coordination with the Commission on Elections.
He said that so far, there had been no recorded election-related incident in the province. (PNA)
