ILOILO CITY -- A total of 432 cops in Western Visayas with relatives running for the village and youth polls this May 14 were temporarily relieved from their current assignments.
In an interview Friday, Superintendent Joem Malong, Spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas), said these cops have relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity who are candidates for the upcoming local polls.
She said that these are composed of uniformed personnel, both police commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers.
Most of these reassigned police officers are in Iloilo province with 125. Following Iloilo province is Capiz with 106; Negros Occidental, 81; Antique, 61; Guimaras, 22; Aklan, 21; Iloilo City, 13; and Bacolod City with three.
“This is to ensure that the elections will not be influenced by our members and there will be no biases in terms of our deployment,” Malong said.
She said that these police officers will be returned to their old assignments after the election period.
The PRO-6 on Thursday sent-off 8,511 augmentation of policemen to secure the peaceful and orderly conduct of elections in the entire region. (PNA)
