PNP to probe election sabotage claims

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MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) will look into the alleged plan to sabotage the upcoming May 9 polls as claimed by presidential bets over the weekend.

During a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Monday, PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos stated that they would coordinate with presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson over claims of election sabotage.

“We will get the details from Sen. Lacson to check on it. So far for the monitoring of the election, there have been no major reports of that nature. So we will get it from Sen. Ping,” Carlos said.

Lacson, along with fellow presidential aspirants Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso and former National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales, earlier confirmed he has acquired reports of election sabotage but are still verifying them.

Police will also investigate reports that presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo released a statement warning of chaos if she lost the elections.

“For us, we do not see anything that would hamper or derail the election up to May 9,” Carlos said, as he ordered Lt. Gen Vicente Danao, chief of the PNP Directorial Staff, to join the investigation.

“On top of that, huwag kayo mag alala, nakahanda naman kami (Don’t worry, we are ready),” Carlos added.

He had directed all personnel, he said, to ensure the elections would not be disrupted, warning rebel groups against wreaking havoc on May 9.

Election threats

According to the PNP Directorate for Operations director Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon at the same briefing, the municipalities of Tubatan and Malabang in Lanao del Sur are now under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) due to the reported threats weeks leading to the polls.

They already had a discussion with Comelec chairperson Saidamen Pangarungan on this matter, he said.

“Meron at ako ay nakipagpanayam sa ating chairman si Atty. Saidamen Pangarungan at kami ay baka mag-inspect doon (Yes, there are threats and I had talked with our chairman Atty. Saidamen Pangarungan and we might have an inspection there),” de Leon said.

He added that the Special Action Force has been deployed in Tubaran and Malabang.

The Comelec issued the list of 114 areas considered as red areas, which is also based on the recommendation by the PNP.

The election hotspot list has four categories — green, yellow, orange, and red.

Green refers to areas that do not have security concerns and are generally peaceful and orderly, while yellow are areas of concern, which means that these have a history of election-related incidents in the last elections, possible employment of partisan armed groups, the occurrence of politically motivated election-related incidents and had been previously declared under Comelec control.

Meanwhile, Orange means areas of immediate concern where there is a serious armed threat; while Red means areas of grave concern, which exhibit combined factors under the Yellow category with serious armed threats that may warrant the motu proprio (on its own) declaration of Comelec control.