By LEYTE SAMAR DAILY EXPRESS
TACLOBAN CITY.—The Philippine National Police will begin deploying on Thursday 580 policemen from its regional headquarters to the three Samar provinces and Biliran island to respond to possible eruption of election-related violence.
About 400 of the cops, many of them newly hired and assigned at present to the health and communications division of the PNP Region 8, will be fielded in Samar province where 21 towns, including the capital Calbayog, have been placed in the PNP’s election watchlist.
Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Lanada, regional police director, said police have not monitored any incident of election-related violence since the start of the election period on Jan. 10. But VERA Files earlier reported that armed men on Feb. 20 raided Calbayog’s three northeastern barangays—San Jose, Sinantan, and Patong—killing one person dead and rounding up several villagers. Many residents have fled their homes.
“We are giving focus (to) Samar because it is in this province where we project of high incidence of (election-related) violence,” Lanada said.
He cited the intense political rivalry involving candidates in the province, as well as the presence of private armed groups, allegedly maintained by some politicians.
The PNP Region 8 earlier identified five private armed groups operating in Samar province, some of them said to be “crossing” to nearby Northern Samar.
The remaining 180 policemen from the region’s headequarters will be fielded in Northern Samar (90), Eastern Samar (70) and the small island-province of Biliran (20).
Sixteen towns in Northern Samar are in the police’s watchlist, eight in Eastern Samar and two in Biliran.
Senior Superintendent Manuel Cubillo, regional police information officer, said last week the policemen assigned election duties will secure the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines at the polling precincts, among others.