Army, cops lead bike for peaceful, safe polls in Samar

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar, May 8 (PNA) – At least 234 cyclists and motor-bikers joined the Bike for Peaceful, Credible, Orderly and Safe (PCOS) Election held in areas of concern in Samar on Saturday.

The activity was spearheaded by the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division (8ID), Philippine National Police and Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Maj. Gen. Jet Velarmino, 8ID commanding general said in an interview said that the activity is a replication of the Bike for Peace they have been conducting in different areas of the region.

Law enforcers decided to hold the Bike for PCOS Elections in Sta. Margarita town and Calbayog City to let more people be aware of the advocacy of law enforcers with the support of the stakeholders.

“This is to show that we are serious in this campaign and doing everything to make the elections in the province successful and peaceful,” he said.

Sta. Margarita and Calbayog City are identified as election hotspots due to reported shooting incidents in the past weeks, allegedly perpetuated by private armed groups supported by politicians.

Velarmino added that together with the PNP, they are doing everything to address the situation and established a command post to have a close monitoring in the area.

“We have operations right now going on to address the situation, we already established a command post to have a closer look and monitoring of the activities in the area,” Velarmino added.

“But our concern is the whole Region 8 and there were already reported incidents that happened even in Leyte that we need to address, were looking at the whole region,” Velarmino stressed.

The army has already deployed their forces to different areas in the region and secured the delivery of vote counting machines, particularly in far flung areas.

Almost 75 percent of 8ID soldiers division were deployed for election duties.

“We are hoping of the safe conduct of election on Monday and hopefully no incident will happen, although we are already in place in all areas that needed the presence of the military,” Velarmino said. (PNA)

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