SOME 228 personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Davao exercised their right to suffrage after casting their votes during the local absentee voting as of Tuesday, April 30 at PRO Multi-purpose Gym, Camp Sgt Quintin M Merecido, Buhangin, Davao City.
PRO-Davao director Marcelo Morales led the local absentee voting as prescribed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which started on Monday. This electoral process allows the police to cast their votes earlier than the official election date, which is on May 13, provided they applied to be part of the early voting.
This was conducted since police personnel will be deployed during the May poll to secure the election. However, the police may only cast their vote for national positions such as senators and a party list representative.
"I have encouraged them to avail of the absentee voting to exercise their right to suffrage. Our country deserves good leaders and we will be able to attain this if we will vote wisely," Police Brigadier General Morales said.
PRO-Davao said that out of 598 police personnel in the region who applied for absentee voting, only 485 were approved since some of them have not voted for three consecutive years.
As of 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, 228 personnel have already cast their votes.
Based on Section 2 of Comelec Resolution No. 10443, members of the PNP are entitled of the absentee voting, provided, they are duly registered voters and temporarily assigned in places where they are not registered, in the course of undertaking their public functions and duties.
In two weeks, the 2019 midterm election will take place and the security forces assured that they will be on high alert to ensure the peaceful and fair election.
Morales urged the public to cooperate with them and to report suspicious activities or individuals during the election period to the Regional Election Monitoring Action Center (Remac) or in their local police hotlines posted on social media pages and websites. (JCR)