Some 8,511 augmentation cops from the Police Regional Office VI (PRO-6) will help ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the region.

The policemen were officially deployed in their areas of assignment in a send-off ceremony held at Camp Martin Delgado, Fort San Pedro in Iloilo City yesterday morning.

In his speech, Chief Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag, PRO-6 Regional Director, recalled that a series of Regional Joint Security Coordinating Council (RJSCC) meetings and conferences were previously conducted, together with the Commission on Elections 6 and the Philippine Army in preparation for the polls.

Part of these preparations is the deployment of personnel to augment the existing police forces in the different areas in the region, he said.

Binag also announced that mandatory and special courses training of some policemen, who are part of the augmentation force, are temporarily stopped due to their deployment.

Apart from the deployment of police, PRO-6 also turned over some 30 brand new patrol cars to the respective beneficiary-police stations in the region.

Following the send-off, another RJSCC meeting was conducted at the camp.

PRO-6 spokesperson Supt. Joem Malong said the council approved 133 election watch list areas (EWAs) in the region.

Negros Occidental tops the list with 80 villages; Iloilo province, 28; Capiz, 15; province of Aklan and Iloilo City with four each; and Antique with two.

The island province of Guimaras and Bacolod City have zero EWAs.

Malong said these EWAs will be prioritized to make sure that peace and order prevailed. (PNA)