Police related to Eleksyon 2022 candidates reassigned to other areas –PNP chief

Personnel of the Philippine National Police who are related to or have connections with Eleksyon 2022 candidates have been reassigned to other areas to prevent them from being tagged as involved in partisan politics, PNP chief Police General Dionardo Carlos said Sunday.

“While they are there in the area, ‘yung mga kamag-anak po nila, pamilyar sila sa mga local elected officials, during time of elections, the start of election period, nililipat na natin sila. Kaya nagkaroon tayo ng rotation ng mga chief of police para ‘yung familiarity doon sa lugar ay hindi magamit at hindi masabihan na partisan dahil magkakilala,” he said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(During the start of the election period, we have reassigned those who have relatives or are familiar with the local elected officials. That’s why we had a rotation of police chiefs so that the familiarity they had in those areas will not be used against them.)

Carlos said they also urged their personnel to declare who among them have relatives vying for a political post in the upcoming elections so they could be relocated for the meantime. However, those who did not declare such were relieved from their positions, he added.

“‘Yung na-discover natin na hindi nag-declare, ni-relieve ko na po ‘yan. May mga pinag-aalis na ako. Recently, meron pa rin kaming ni-relieve. Meron din kaming mga police na kailangan tanggalin sa lugar para hindi mo pagdudahan. Kami dapat ay tumatayong balanse, dapat nasa gitna,” he said.

(Those we discovered who did not declare were relieved [from their posts]. We still removed others recently. We also have police that needed to be removed from their areas so people would not have any doubts. We must be balanced, we must be in the middle.)

Further, Carlos noted that the PNP will also deploy their administrative staff, as well as their 16,000 police under training during and prior to the May 9 polls to serve as additional personnel on the ground.

“‘Yung amin pong deployment, gusto namin ‘yung aming mga police ay makaboto kung saan sila botante at doon din sila magdu-duty para kung saan sila rehistrado, nakaboto na sila, naka-perform pa sila. Maximized deployment po kami,” he added.

(We want our police to be able to vote where they are registered and they will also be on duty in that particular area. We will have a maximized deployment for the elections.)

At the Laging Handa public briefing on Wednesday, Carlos said more police personnel have been deployed to some areas in Bondoc Peninsula in southern Quezon province and in Pangasinan in northern Luzon to ensure security of the 2022 elections.

Election Day is on May 9 as per Commision on Elections Resolution No. 10695. —KG, GMA News