BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and IME SORNITO
ILOILO City – A total of 1,758 policemen across Western Visayas cast their ballots on the first day of the three-day local absentee voting (LAV) yesterday.
They voted in their respective provincial police offices.
The police office of Negros Occidental had the most number of police absentee voter turnout yesterday at 666; Iloilo had 553; Capiz, 206; Aklan, 155; Antique, 85; and Guimaras, 93.
Data from the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) showed it having 4,247 qualified police absentee voters.
“We expect all will vote,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Solis, PRO-6 information officer and spokesperson.
The manner of voting for LAV is manual; the voter has to write down the names of his chosen candidates on the official ballot.
Absentee voters are allowed to vote for national positions only – one each for president and vice president, 12 senators and one party-list group.
Under LAV, voters are allowed to cast their ballots in places where they are not registered voters but where they are temporarily assigned to perform election duties on election day (May 9), or in the case of the media who will not be able to vote due to the performance of their functions in covering and reporting on the elections.
At the Iloilo Police Provincial Office in Santa Barbara, Iloilo, the LAV was peaceful and orderly yesterday.
“So far naga-work ang aton plano nga indi mag-clog ang aton mga kapulisan for local absentee voting,” said Master Sergeant Francis Lindero, IPPO spokesperson.
There was a waiting area where the cops’ body temperature was checked before they were allowed to proceed to the IPPO covered gym where the voting area was situated.
Upon entering the gym, cops must proceed to a table to verify their names in the list of LAV voters.
After the verification, cops were given ballots and white envelopes. They then proceeded to armchairs safety distanced from one another where they wrote down the names of their chosen candidates.
After filing out their ballots, the cops thumb-marked these then put them inside the white envelopes and drop these envelopes in ballot boxes.
Due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, the cops were required to wear facemask and observe physical distancing.
Aside from its police personnel, the IPPO was also serving absentee voters from the PRO-6’s Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit, Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB), National Support Units, and Regional Headquarters./PN