The Western Command (WESCOM) said the conduct of the May 13 midterm elections in Palawan is “generally peaceful” compared to the previous years despite the shooting incident in Narra which hurt two supporters of rival candidates.
Vice Admiral Rene Medina, commander of the WESCOM, said Tuesday it was untroubled by serious conflicts, although they have recorded “election-related incidents,” such as the episode in Narra on May 12 that hurt the supporters of incumbent Mayor Lucena Demaala and Gerandy Danao, the newly-elected mayor; and two cases of the gun ban violation in El Nido.
“In general, we can categorically say that we had a successful [and peaceful] conduct of national and local elections in Palawan in the aspect of security. We will continue to provide security and necessary assistance to the COMELEC (Commission on Elections) in coordination with other law enforcement agencies. Our personnel will remain deployed until we retrieve all the election paraphernalia in different areas of Palawan,” Medina said.
He said there were also issues about malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs), defective memory cards, and delayed transmittal of election returns from municipalities, but they too did not affect the peace and order in the city and province.
“Although we received reports about glitches in some election paraphernalia, it did not affect the security [aspect of elections],” he added.
Jomel Ordas, the spokesperson of the COMELEC in the province, said the recent electoral process is “more successful” because there was no reported incident on election day.
“Iba ang election ngayon compare sa mga nakaraan, tahimik talaga ngayon hindi katulad [noong] nakaraan na mayroon talagang nangyayari na hindi maganda,” Ordas said.
The canvassing of election results in the province has been delayed because of 48 defective SD cards.
