Pasay poll result known tomorrow

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson Harriet Demetriou said yesterday that she expects the winner in the Pasay City recall elections today to be proclaimed within 24 hours, and that the elections would be generally peaceful and orderly.

Meanwhile, the entire Pasay City police force was placed on red alert the other night as part of a security mantle for today's special polls.

Aside from the 386 city policemen, the four other police districts of the National Capital Region, namely the Northern, Western, Central and Eastern, are sending at dawn today, 500 personnel each to the Southern Police District (SPD) for election duties in Pasay.

Superintendent Edmund Cacatian, Pasay City police chief for operations, said the red alert means all the members of the city police force have been ordered to report for duty.

"We also tapped our covert operatives to monitor today's poll proceedings for us to immediately identify possible election-related problems," Cacatian added.

Demetriou told the Friday 'Balitaan sa Hotel Rembrandt' that the Commission on Elections has activated 10 tabulation committees to speed up the proclamation of the winner in the four-cornered fight for Pasay City mayor.

The candidates are incumbent Mayor Jovito Claudio, former Pasay City police chief Ding Santos, former Vice Mayor Peewee Trinidad and Romulo Marcelo.

All precincts will open at 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. The city has 1,099 precincts with 214,076 registered voters.

Demetriou said that while she expects the elections to be generally peaceful, the poll body is not taking any chances, that is why "some 2,000 policemen will be fielded, although Pasay, during ordinary days, needs only 200."

The Philippine Army will also lend 10 trucks to transport the policemen and ballot boxes from the precincts to the canvassing center in the Cuneta Astrodome. Each voting center will be guarded by a police car, aside from foot patrol cops.

Demetriou added that the Department of Justice has made available 22 prosecutors who will handle any election-related case like vote-buying, threats and intimidation.

"The 22 prosecutors from the DOJ will assist Comelec lawyers. In addition, the Supreme Court has directed two Pasay regional trial courts to remain open 24 hours, thus assuring swift action on all cases," she said.

She also reiterated that the liquor ban will remain in force until midnight tonight. Cacatian warned policemen of severe sanctions if they played politics instead of staying neutral in today's polls.

The warning came following accusations and counter-accusations aired by two of the four mayoralty candidates that police scalawags have been commissioned by a certain candidate to harass voters.

Earlier, National Capital Regional Police Office chief, Edgar Aglipay, also assured the public that today's special polls in Pasay City will be peaceful with 2,000 policemen deployed near polling precincts so the city's voters can freely cast their votes. - With Jaime Laude and Ella Oducayen