Security beefed up for BOL plebiscite

Additional security forces arrived Tuesday in Lanao del Norte for the plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL)

Police and military deployment will stay in Lanao del Norte to ensure peaceful, safe and orderly conduct of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) plebiscite until the whole plebiscite process in the province is over, a police official said on Tuesday.

Over a thousand organic police personnel and another augmentation of more than a thousand police troops from other regional commands were deployed in the province yesterday, February 5.

Government security forces and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) established a joint action center in Iligan City and Tubod town which will also

will also serve as command centers.

During the send-off ceremony yesterday, the troops received final instructions about their roles and functions, restrictions and limitations ,operational procedures (chain of command, coordination lines,etc.), related laws and respect for human rights, among others.

“They will stay in the area until the whole plebiscite is over ,” Superintendent Surki Serenas, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Northern Mindanao (PRO-10), said.

Serenas said government authorities have monitored and are looking into some unvalidated information regarding security threats for the BOL plebiscite.

However, he said there is no cause for alarm since enough troops are in the area and government forces are on top of the situation.

“Although they are unvalidated, we have to act on it and assume they are true,”Serenas said.

(Jigger J. Jerusalem) Police officers stop motorists at a checkpoint in Tubod town, Lanao del Norte as security were tightened in the province ahead of the plebiscite on Tuesday, Feb. 6, that will decide if six of its municipalities will be included in the soon-to-be created Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao following the ratification of Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Basic Law.