GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 12 May) – Police authorities here have activated a special monitoring and operations unit in preparation for the elections on Monday.
Supt. Rolly Octavio, deputy city police director for operations, said they established the city election monitoring action center (CEMAC) to properly monitor the conduct of the elections and facilitate immediate action or response to any election-related problem that might arise.
“(CEMAC) will serve as our main monitoring and operations base and will handle all matters concerning the elections,” he said.
The official said they established the CEMAC, which is under the supervision of the city police’s operations division, at the city police headquarters at Camp Fermin Lira here.
The center is equipped with computers, landline telephone and mobile phone hotlines and other communication equipment, he said.
Police Officer 2 Manolo Landig, one of the assigned CEMAC staff, said the center has opened direct lines for reports and other communications coming from the city’s eight police stations and policemen assigned in polling centers within the city’s 26 barangays.
He said they also have direct access with the assigned desk officers of the city’s police stations via the Internet-based Skype.
Landig said the center will receive and process the situation reports that will be submitted by the police stations and policemen assigned at the polling centers.
He said they would also accept reports from civilians on any matter related with the conduct of the elections, among them incidents of vote buying as well as problems during the voting process.
“Civilians may file reports directly to us through our hotlines or through policemen assigned at the polling centers,” he said.
Landig said the reports will then be processed by the center and forward them to the appropriate unit for proper response or action.
The city police office earlier raised its security status to full alert as part of its security strategies for Monday’s elections.
As directed by Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima, it also cancelled the leave privileges of all police personnel to ensure maximum deployment for the polls.
The city police office has a regular strength of 560 commissioned officers and non-commissioned personnel.
Octavio said the city police earlier received personnel augmentation from the Police Regional Office 12 and the regional training school.