Police General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police ( PNP) on Friday said they are monitoring around 70 alleged private armed groups nationwide for the May elections.

Albayalde said this after visiting the province of Abra which is under the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “Red” category.

“We have a list of groups not only from national headquarters but provincial level that are being monitored, something like 70 alleged private armed groups,” he said.

“Abra has become a perennial problem. We cannot ignore it and we still have information about presence of private armed groups,” said Albayalde.

He said it’s the fault of politicians for not being civilized that’s why the Comelec and people notice this during elections.

“Yesterday, we let the opposing parties meet and they promised to cooperate with us. Hopefully, this upcoming election would have zero incident in the province,” said Albayalde.

“And that would be a good start, probably in the next election they will not be on the hotspot if the Comelec and the people will see there is no need for them to be monitored,” he added.

Albayalde visited Ilocos Sur, Abra and Cordillera provinces and he saw that all the police officers are prepared for the May election.

He said there will be a realignment of groups in Kalinga and Abra as they lack officers who will guard polling centers.

“We saw that in some areas there is a need for augmentation,” he said.

Albayalde reminded officers to not engage in partisan politics and remain apolitical after he received information some are secretly providing security to some candidates.

Albayalde also inspected some Comelec checkpoints in Benguet where he scolded officers who were not organized. Ella Dionisio/DMS