MANILA - Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. has declared that all post-election public assemblies and other mass actions held in some places around the country have been secured to prevent any form of violence. "We are glad that those assemblies or gathering(s) of supporters went smoothly without any major incident recorded," he said in a statement on Saturday. Danao added the active deployment of police personnel in areas of convergence greatly contributed to maintaining peace and order to the identified areas. The PNP recorded at least 40 public assemblies staged between May 10-14 across the country, including the thanksgiving event at the Ateneo de Manila University campus on Friday. "We would also like to thank the cooperation of the organizers and those who participated in these events for adhering to our call for a peaceful gathering. The premise is to allow them to express their sentiments in consideration to the safety g
(Photo courtesy of PNP) MANILA-The Philippine National Police (PNP) has successfully contained the usual outbreak of violence in Mindanao during the May 9 elections. PNP directorate for operations, Maj. Gen. Valeriano De Leon, in an interview Wednesday, attributed this to early security preparations and real-time adjustments on the ground. De Leon, concurrent commander of the PNP national and local election task force, said the good working relationship with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should also be credited since the poll body facilitated the movement of police personnel to areas with serious security concerns in Mindanao. "If you would compare the data of this year's elections and that of the past elections, you would notice a significant decrease of (election-related) incidents in Mindanao. It really went down," he said. The PNP has recorded 52 incidents on election day across the country, 21 of them were classified as serious, and almost all happened in Min