City Hall gets ballots; police now on full alert

Cadungog.

Over 800 boxes filled with ballots were turned over to the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) yesterday afternoon, six days before election day.

City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas personally received the ballot boxes which are stored in the CTO when it will be distributed to the city’s polling precincts May 9.

“Distribution of the official ballots should be on the day of the elections, at dawn. We will dispatch them starting at 1 a.m.,” said Edwin Cadungog, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Cebu City north district election officer.

The official ballots were delivered in two 10-wheeler trucks by 2GO Travel to City Hall.

The trucks weren’t opened until Cadungog, Comelec south district election officer Michael Sarno, Cuevas and representatives of the local chapters of the Liberal Party (LP) and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) were present.

Representatives of the local groups supporting presidential bets Grace Poe and Rodrigo Duterte were also present during the transfer. No representative for Miriam Santiago was present.

Based on the transfer documents, a total of 837 boxes containing the official ballots were turned over — 385 for the north and 452 for the south.

Cuevas said the boxes were stored in the second and third floors of City Hall’s executive building where they are covered by nets and monitored by closed-circuit TV cameras.

On election day, Cadungog said the ballots will first be delivered to the farthest upland barangays followed by the nearest upland barangays at 3 a.m. and the urban barangays one hour after.

“These should all be delivered before 6 a.m. By the time the clock strikes 6 a.m., voting should already start,” he said.

Cadungog said the vote-counting machines will be turned over to City Hall on May 5.

The machines will be shipped to the polling centers by May 6 where the final testing and sealing will be done between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the same day.

In yesterday’s press briefing, the Police Regional Office reminded candidates anew to help keep the elections peaceful.

The police are now on full alert status with deployment two to three days before May 9.

Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, PRO chief, said strafing incidents may rise as the country enters the final stretch of the campaign period.

He told reporters that each police officer signed a covenant upholding the police’s neutrality during the elections.