Contingency plans in place for common Election Day problems, Comelec’s Garcia says

Contingency plans are in place to handle usual issues to be encountered come Election Day, Commission on Elections Commissioner George Garcia said Friday.

At the Laging Handa public briefing, Garcia said some teachers who are designated as election board members do not show up on the day of the polls.

“Meron po tayong pamamalit agad sa mga miyembro pong mga electoral boards. May guidelines po tayo kung paano sila papalitan,” he said.

(We already have immediate replacement for electoral board members. We have guidelines on how we will replace them.)

Another common problem during election day is the delay of delivery of poll paraphernalia. To address this, Garcia said the Comelec already issued a resolution for the early delivery of these items to concerned areas.

“Minsan naman po nade-delay yun pong mga election paraphernalia sa kung anuman pong mga kadahilanan (Sometimes the delivery of election paraphernalia is delayed for whatever reasons),” he said.

Garcia added that security concerns is among the common challenges during the election including violence and terrorism committed by camps of candidates or terror groups.

“Patuloy pa rin po nating minamanmanan ang iba’t ibang parte ng ating bansa lalo na sa isyu ng seguridad, yung violence and terrorism, na maari po yung nag-iisip na ibang kandidato, yung ibang nag-iisip na grupo na gustong maghasik ng lagim sa atin pong bansa sa araw ng eleksyon, hindi po natin papayagan,” he said.

(We continue on monitoring different parts of the country especially on the issue of security like violence and terrorism, that some candidates or other groups may attempt to sow fear on the election day. We will not allow it.)

Garcia said the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) have committed their assets to ensure peaceful elections. — RSJ, GMA News