Peace covenant sought in Metro

With the start of the local campaign, Chief Superintendent Prospero Noble Jr., director of the Southern Police District (SPD), has directed all his seven station commanders to initiate "peace covenants" among the candidates in their respective areas.

Noble said he issued the directive during one of their recent meetings.

The SPD covers the cities of Makati, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa and the Municipalities of Taguig and Pateros.

He said it was Senior Superintendent Rosendo Franco, a newly pointed Pasay police chief, who was the first to report to him that two rival political groups in the city — one led by incumbent Mayor Wenceslao "Peewee" Trinidad of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and the other led by Ding Santos of Lakas-NUCD both agreed to sign a peace pact.

"We have already talked to the two groups and arranged for them to sign the covenants at their convenience. We set two dates — March 31 and another in the first week of April," he said.

Franco, who only assumed the post of Pasay police chief late last month, said he made inquiries about the situation during previous elections.

"Ang sabi sa akin na pagkatapos ng election ay magkakaibigan na sila," he said.

Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga recently told reporters that they have also organized a peace signing among the candidates to take place by next month.

Taguig had previously been cited as an area of concern, particularly in the areas of Maharlika Village, Signal Village, Upper Bicutan and Lower Bicutan.

Tinga said the residents of Taguig are generally peace-loving citizens, but they are invaded by outsiders, especially those who come from parts of "war-torn Mindanao."

When he went around the area, some "residents" could not even speak tagalog and did not know him.

Noble said the police officials are making their rounds of candidates in the local polls.

"We can only invite the candidates to join the covenant, but we cannot make any demands, this is not martial law. Wala tayong magagawa if they don’t want to participate, but we will inform their constituents and it would be up to the voters," he said.

However, he admitted that a signing of peace covenants among different political groups is not a 100 percent guarantee that there would be no election-related violence.

"I guess we would just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that they would keep their word," Noble said.

So far, since the campaign started last March 25, there has been no reported incidents related to the campaign. Police personnel have been deployed to secure political sorties.