Lapu-Lapu police to recommend a downgrade of city’s EWA status

Senior Superintendent Limuel Obon,  Lapu-Lapu City Police Office director, is pushing for a downgrade of the election watchlist area of Lapu-Lapu City. |CDN file photo

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — The local police will be recommending that the election watchlist area (EWA) status of this city be downgraded to the yellow category from the present orange category.

Senior Superintendent Limuel Obon,  Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LLCPO) director, said that he would make the recommendation to downgrade the city’s EWA status during their Regional Joint Security Control Center (RJSCC) meeting this Saturday, March 16.

Considering the candidates signed a peace covenant and the current ground situation, Obon said that downgrading the EWA status of Lapu-Lapu City would only be prudent.

“Anyway this is not final. As we progress karong March [30], magsugod na man ang local campaign, in a day or two, we can change the status depending on the situation on the ground. Dili man ni permanent. Ang atoa lang, as of this day, this time we clear out nga ingon pa ani ang situation para di pod maka-cause og alarm,” Obon told reporters on Tuesday, March 12.

Read more: PNP identifies 7 ‘election watchlist areas’ in Cebu

The yellow category status on EWAs means that the situation at the place manifests a strong political rivalry among competing politicians. Meanwhile, the orange category means that aside from intense political rivalry, threats of the presence of armed groups are also existent.

Obon said that they had not monitored any presence of armed groups in the city based on all intelligence networks.

Obon also said that they had already conducted a pre-workshop yesterday, March 11, among the local police to know the demand of security personnel that had to be deployed to secure polling places and the transportation of election paraphernalia from polling centers to canvassing sites.

“That was a pre-workshop on how we will secure the vote counting machines (VCM) from the hub and going to the polling centers or schools. Ang among priority concern is katong tulo ka islets — Caubian, Caohagan, Pangan-anan. Ingon man ang atong election officer nga he will tap the services of the Philippine Coast Guard ug Philippine Navy on the transport of the VCM machines and the BEIs, and it would be advantageous to us if that would be the case,” Obon said.

Obon added that personnel from the Special Weapon and Tactics (SWAT) would be assigned to escort the VCMs and BEIs from the storage area of the election paraphernalia to the assigned polling centers.

Obon said that they would be conducting ocular inspections in polling centers to determine if the standard two policemen per polling center would be sufficient.

“The standard is two personnel per polling center but there are areas nga kinahanglan gyud og additional. What will follow is our occular inspection or walkthrough para makita nato ang actual requirements. Para kung makuwangan gyud mi, we can avail of other security personnel kay we are sure nga di gyud mi mahatagan og augmentation nga police ana kay kinahanglan pod sa uban nga lugar,” Obon added./dbs