“Just make sure we have orderly and peaceful elections in the Negros Island Region”.
That was Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson’s call when PBrig. Gen. Arnold Thomas Ibay, the newly-installed officer-in-charge of the Police Regional Office–Negros Island Region (PRO-NIR), paid a courtesy visit at the Capitol in Bacolod City on Tuesday, May 15.
“The election period is the biggest festival in the country, everybody is celebrating with all kinds of gimmicks and noise,” Lacson said.
Let us enjoy it and avoid resorting to anything that is physically harmful, he said.
Voters are turned off by negative campaigning and mudslinging, Lacson said.
Ibay said the NIR so far is generally peaceful.
The police are now securing the Comelec’s automated counting machines that have arrived for the May polls, he said.
The PRO NIR is also studying a request for deployment of additional policemen in Negros Oriental, Ibay said.
The Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office earlier said it needs 347 additional personnel for its staffing requirements and for election duty.
They can also request the Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Army to augment the PNP if necessary, Ibay said.*