Roxas congratulates PNP for job well done in the recent elections

Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas on Monday congratulated the Philippine National Police (PNP) for a job well done in keeping the recent May 13 midterm elections "peaceful, orderly and credible."

Speaking at the weekly flag raising ceremony in Camp Crame, Roxas stressed that last week's midterm election was more peaceful compared to the 2007 and 2010 political exercises in terms of recorded election-related violent incidents.

"Hindi nadiskaril ang ating halalan. At hindi ang mga kandidato ang nanalo kundi ang tao. [Our election was not derailed. It was not the candidates but our people who are the winners]," Roxas told PNP officers and men.

Acknowledging the PNP's major contributions in keeping the level of violence low, he congratulated the 148,000-strong police force led by PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima, who attended the ceremony along with several top police officials.

"I praise all of you for a job well done last Monday," Roxas said, emphasizing that they carried out their duties faithfully despite severe difficulties and lack of equipment.

The PNP was placed on alert last May 6 ahead of the elections and would "continue to be vigilant until the entire electoral process is finished."

Roxas attributed the poll's peaceful, orderly conduct to several factors, one of them is the early preparations undertaken by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and PNP, which launched Task Force SAFE 2013 or Secure and Fair Elections in November last year, two months before the start of the election period.

Quoting the PNP post-election report, he said 90 election-related incidents (ERI) were recorded from January 13 to May 13, 2013 compared to 135 in 2010 and 178 in 2007 covering the same period.

Two policemen on election duty were killed – PO1 Agerico Afable in Borongan, Eastern Samar and PO2 Jesus Apostol in San Pascual, Masbate – on top of 13 wounded, compared to six killed and 12 wounded in 2010. Ten policemen were also killed and 17 wounded in 2007.

Apostol died of heart attack triggered by a poisonous jellyfish sting when he fell off a boat ferrying PCOS machines to Burias Island, while Afable was killed in an attack by unnamed gunmen on a clustered voting precinct he was guarding in barangay Calingatngan.

Roxas called the two policemen "the symbol of the PNP sacrifices and an inspiration" for the entire force. "These men are heroes – they have done their duty and paid this sacrifice."

The PNP reported neutralizing 109 members of private armed groups from January 13 to May 13 this year, on top of 113 PAG members already neutralized from June 2012 to January 12, 2013 for a total of 222.

The PNP also recovered a total of 377 PAG firearms from June 2012 to May 14, 2013.

The police confiscated a total of 8,306 firearms from June 2012 to May 14, 2013, with 3,190 netted during the gun-ban period.

Under "Oplan Katok", the PNP made total of 613,657 house visitations, renewed the licenses for 92,817 firearms, recorded 37,143 firearms under safekeeping or double entry, and listed 235,550 firearms licenses under investigation. (PNA)