MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) is expected to release shortly its final report on the number of election-related incidents during last week’s Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
PNP Spokesman, Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, told reporters that the PNP- National Election Monitoring Action Center (NEMAC) report will detail incidents that occurred from April 14 until Monday (May 21) midnight.
The PNP earlier proclaimed May 14, the election day itself, to be generally peaceful with one death occurring and small number of incidents reported compared to previous years.
In the days leading to the election itself, the PNP said some 24 persons were killed including 13 elected government officials, three candidates, one former elected government official, one appointed government employee and six civilians.
Six were wounded, composed of two elected government officials and four civilians.
Out of 76 suspects, 52 remain unidentified in the shooting and kidnapping incidents. Thirteen cases are under investigation, four are with the prosecutor’s office and three were filed in court.
There are 7,916 hotspots in the country, with 619 categorized under the “red level” or areas deemed as the most critical among election hotspots, 4,972 under the “orange level” or areas with a high presence of armed and rebel groups at 2,325 at “yellow level” or those that have a history of election-related violence.