Comelec to tap over 1,700 cops for ARMM barangay polls

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -- The Commission on Elections will mobilize 1,741 policemen to help administer the October 28 barangay elections in far-flung areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where teachers have declined to perform election duties due to security issues.

Chief Supt. Noel Delos Reyes, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters Thursday that the policemen the Comelec will utilize for special election duties will come from Luzon and Visayas.

“This deployment has the full imprimatur of Comelec, which supervises all security preparations for the October 28 barangay elections,” Delos Reyes said.

Delos Reyes said the 1,741 policemen will be assigned in isolated areas in the ARMM’s Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sulu provinces, where hundreds of teachers have asked to be relieved of election duties owing to either security reasons or their relations or affiliations with  candidates.

Delos Reyes, the ARMM police, and the regional local government department had jointly brokered covenants among candidates in some hostile areas binding them to adhere to the Omnibus Election Code.

Delos Reyes said he is confident that the elections in the autonomous region will be held without disruption.

He said the ARMM police tapped local traditional and religious leaders to help the Comelec administer honest and orderly elections in areas where candidates for barangay positions are locked in fierce rivalry. - John Unson