DAVAO DEL NORTE (PIA) — The Davao del Norte Multi-Agency Coordinating Center (MACC) will be activated past noon tomorrow, October 29, by the Provincial Joint Security Coordinating Committee for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Election (BSKE) 2023 at the Headquarters of the Davao del Norte Police Provincial Office (DNPPO) in Tagum City, this province.
In an interview, DNPPO Police Director Alexander Serrano said the MACC brings together the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Serrano noted that the election MACC will first time include the participation of the DOJ, which will be sending government prosecutors or fiscals to immediately attend to cases filed on vote-buying and vote-selling.
“If makadakop jud ta, automatic ang fiscal mo assist sa PNP ug sa AFP (If can intercept, the fiscal will automatically assist the PNP or the AFP),” he said in an interview during the BSKE Security Forces send-off ceremony, Friday.
“This is the first time that DOJ has a memorandum of agreement with the COMELEC,” Serrano added, referring to the Kontra-Bigay Committee that checks on vote-buying and vote-selling this BSKE.
Meanwhile, the DNPPO and COMELEC sent off, Friday, a total 1,186 combined elements from PNP, Philippine Army, and PCG as security forces for the synchronized BSKE on Monday, Oct. 30.
Serrano said they were deployed to secure a total of 276 polling centers with 4,770 polling precincts all over Davao del Norte.
COMELEC Davao del Norte has declared the province under GREEN Category, which means it has no area of concern.
However, DNPPO Provincial Director, PCol Alexander Serrano wanted to make sure that no election-related incident would happen in his area of responsibility.
He had asked the Philippine Army to serve as “quick reaction teams” stationed at the boundaries near Bukidnon, Davao City and Davao de Oro.
“Atong iwasaan nga ma-vacuum ang mga boundaries. Tungod aning insurgency, basin masudlan ta. Naa lang man gud na sila sa atong silingan (We don’t want to vacuum our boundaries. Considering the insurgency, we would possibly be intruded; they’re just at the neighboring areas),” he said.
He also had instructed all police chiefs to beef up visibility especially during rallies of any political parties while keeping close eyes on vote-buying and /or selling.
He added that they have alerted the security forces on the foreseen chaos that the manual vote-counting would possibly generate at the polling places and polling precincts.
“Ang pinaka -critical karon after the voting, ang counting, kay diha na man kantsaway sa both parties. mao sab na atong bantayan until such time nga naa na ma-proclaim nga kandidato (What is critical is the vote counting during which parties would be jeering against each other. That is what we are watching for until such time candidates would be proclaimed),” he said, referring to past experiences on barangay elections. (JMDA/ PIA Davao del Norte/Photos from DNPPO)
