CEBU CITY, Philippines—Former Pinamungajan mayor Geraldine “Gaye” Yapha can request for a security detail after receiving a death threat on Wednesday morning, February 20, 2019.
Acting Provincial Election Supervisor Jerome Brillantes said that Yapha can apply for a security detail but will need to secure a threat assessment from the police to supplement a request for a maximum of two security details.
“She will need to ask for a threat assessment from the police and submit it here with the request for security details. That will be evaluated sa PJSCC (Provincial Joint Security Control Center) and endorsed to the RJSCC (Regional Joint Security Control Center),” Brillantes told CDN Digital in a phone interview on Wednesday.
If approved by the RJSCC, Yapha may be given two security details. However, Brillantes said there is only little possibility that the security detail that would be assigned to Yapha would be uniformed police.
Read more: Yapha on death threats: Politically motivated
“[If the security detail will be a uniformed police] the local police will have to certify first nga they have enough personnel to maintain the peace and order of the area for the elections and related activities. Normally, ang ma-assign ana will be blue guard who have been trained for VIP security,” Brillantes explained.
Yapha, meanwhile, said she is considering the thought of additional security.
Yapha, who is running for Cebu Third District representative in this year’s May midterm elections under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), sought the help of the police after she received a note accompanied by two bullets at the back of her Toyota Hilux pick-up truck.
The note read “W-daw (withdraw) or die. 2 bullets. One for you. One for driver.”
Yapha will be facing former gubernatorial candidate Pablo John Garcia and Toledo City Mayor John Henry Osmeña in this year’s elections slated May 13, 2019. /bmjo