Manila: No delays were encountered so far in the conduct of the midterm elections in the National Capital Region (NCR), Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said on Monday. “Wala po kaming nakitang delay (sa NCR), lahat on time yun eleksiyon natin (we saw no delays at the holding of elections in the NCR, everything is on time),” he added in a media briefing.

According to Philippines News Agency, Marbil stated they received reports of alleged vote buying. “Pinapupuntahan naman ng pulis natin, wala naman silang nakikita, negative naman (but when we deployed our police officers to the alleged areas, they saw nothing, it turned out negative),” the PNP chief said.

On reports of a malfunctioning automatic counting machine (ACM) in Mandaluyong City, Marbil said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has contingency plans for these incidents. “So lahat doing good naman yun eleksyon, peaceful yung eleksyon natin ngayon. (elections are doing good, our elections (for this year) are peaceful),” he added.

Additionally, the PNP chief mentioned that he was not seeing any failure of elections. “Wala kaming nakikita. Ngayon talagang tuloy-tuloy at talagang makikita mo talaga very strong yung enforcement ng Armed Forces, Coast Guard and, of course PNP with the help ng Comelec (We are not seeing that. As of now, it is ongoing and you will see that the enforcement of the Armed Forces, Coast Guard and, of course the PNP, with the help of the Comelec is very strong),” he added.

As this developed, Marbil also indicated that all PNP units in the country were ordered to secure the canvassing of votes. He added that police commanders are expected to beef up security measures by 6 p.m. Monday. ‘We should have more forces by 6 p.m. We want a full force by 6 p.m. up to 12 o’clock during the duration of the counting of votes,’ the PNP chief stressed.