CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 27 Nov) – Election officials in Northern Mindanao, who are already apprehensive following the killing of elections officers in Lanao del Norte and Sultan Kudarat provinces, are asking for police security protection.
Commission on Election Region 10 Director Renato Magbutay said they have told the Philippine National Police to provide police officers to all election officials assigned to cities and towns in Northern Mindanao, especially in the town of Nunungan whose election officer, Mark Orlando Vallecer II, was killed in an ambush in Salvador town, Lanao del Norte on Monday.
Without police security, Magbutay said election officials in Region 10 would be reluctant to serve in the May 2025 elections.
“Our election officers are already apprehensive because of the death of Vallecer and the other Comelec official in Sultan Kudarat province,” Magbutay said.
He said he met with PNP officials in Region 10 to evaluate the security risks of the election officers in the region, and was told that election officials who already received death threats would be provided with police security.
Vallecer, 51, was killed by two gunmen who ambushed him after he attended a meeting in Salvador town.
The other Comelec official killed on Nov. 23 was Janeco Allan Dionaldo Pandoy, assistant election officer of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.
The two election officers were killed in a span of two days.
Maj. Teodorico Gallego, Salvador town police chief, said the gunmen fired eight shots at the red Hyundai Accent car of Vallecer as it slowed down on a rough section of the road in Barangay Curva Miagao.
One bullet that pierced the left side of Vallecer’s body was fatal, Gallego said.
He said they are looking for CCTV cameras along the road between Nunungan and Salvador if there are video clips the gunmen who fled the scene. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
