THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be training at least 7,000 police officers to serve as backup election registration board (ERB) members for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE). These officers will be filling in for teachers who are expected to decline their positions as ERB members.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia announced on Friday that the training will be for police personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP). “We will be training more or less 7,000 from the PNP to serve as the back-up ERBs just in case the regular members of the electoral board will not be able to serve in the elections,” he said.
Garcia explained that this is not the first time police officers have been assigned as election board members. In the 2022 elections, PNP personnel oversaw the voting process in 175 clustered precincts in Cotabato City due to security concerns.
“This was done before in Cotabato City. All the electoral members did not serve in 2022. Thankfully, we had DOST-certified PNP personnel to serve as members of the electoral board,” he added.
Garcia also warned against any attempts to intimidate election board members. “Those who attempt to intimidate electoral board members or try to prevent them from reporting, we’re sorry, we have PNP personnel on reserve who can immediately serve,” he stated.
According to Comelec, the training sessions for both police personnel and ERB members will be held from March 3 to March 31, 2025.
