Units under the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) were directed to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 9 national and local elections in their areas of jurisdiction.
The units under Westmincom are the Army’s 1st, 11th, and 6th Infantry Divisions that have jurisdiction over the Zamboanga Peninsula, Lanao del Norte, parts of Lanao del Sur, Central Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
Westmincom also has a naval component — Naval Forces Western Mindanao — and an Air Force component —Tactical Operations Wing-Western Mindanao.
Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr., commander of Westmincom, said on Saturday that he visited the different field units of the command one after the other the past few days to assess the situation as well as the preparedness of the troops.
The latest unit that Rosario visited was the 11th Infantry Division (ID) based in Jolo, Sulu.
Rosario was impressed with the security preparations of the 11ID, which he visited Friday.
He also conveyed to all field units the guidance of Gen. Andres Centino, Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff, to remain non-partisan and perform their election duties to ensure safe, accurate, free, and fair elections.
Rosario added that they will provide logistical needs, like transportation, to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the preparations and conduct of the poll.
“We will provide security to the polling places, election officials and paraphernalia,” Rosario said in a statement.
Meanwhile, he reminded the commanders of the field units to continue their mandated tasks while rendering poll security duty.
He said there should be designated personnel who will be deployed to perform election duties while others will continue performing military operations to continuously defeat the remaining members of the different terror groups.
