By Gail Momblan/Philippine News Agency
ILOILO CITY — The Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 (Western Visayas) assured that there will be enough number of enforcers to cover 43 towns and cities in the region tagged as election areas of concern or poll “hotspots.”
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) among others, came up with the latest number of hotspots during the recent Regional Joint Security Control Center (RJSCC) meeting.
Sixteen towns were placed under the yellow category or areas of concern; 23 are identified to belong under the orange category or areas with immediate concern; while four are under the red category or with grave concern.
Brig. Gen. John Bulalacao, PRO-6 Director, said police and the AFP are conducting a series of preparatory meetings to assure peaceful elections on May 13.
“We have a security plan to be done, to be implemented during the election. Our locals should not worry because the PNP and the AFP are ready,” Bulalacao said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
He said forces will be augmented in areas that had been classified as election “hotspots”, especially those under the red category.
Under the red category are the towns of Lemery, Calinog, and Maasin in Iloilo province and Moises Padilla town in Negros Occidental, the PRO-6 data shows.
“There will be more troops to be deployed there (areas under the red category),” he said, adding that the PRO 6 is ready to deploy additional troops if the AFP personnel will not be enough.
He said Western Visayas has a total of 12,000 policemen, more than 7,000 will be deployed to election centers.
The AFP, on the other hand, will conduct security operations in the vicinity of the polling centers to make sure that no private armed groups (PAGS) and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels “will intrude into the voting centers to harass the voters,” he said.
Aside from the election day itself, Bulalacao added that they have a calendar of activities of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for them to be guided with the activities to prepare for the election day.
These include the delivery of election materials to provincial hubs, and the region-wide synchronized Operation Baklas on April 15, among others.
He stressed that people should not worry as the police force will secure the Operation Baklas team, and other election-related activities, especially in the poll “hotspots”.
The PRO 6 data further showed the towns of New Lucena, Sara, San Dionisio, and Estancia in Iloilo; and Calatrava, Don Salvador Benedicto, Escalante, EB Magalona, Silay City, Cagayan, Binalbagan, Hinigaran, La Castellana, Candoni, Ilog, and Sipalay City in Negros Occidental are under the yellow category.
An area is classified under the yellow category if it has history of/or current intense political rivalry among the contending parties; presence of private armed groups or PAGs (active/potential) that had been and/or can be utilized by candidates in the area and abetted by loose firearms and availability of gun-for-hire gangs; occurrence of validated election related incident (ERI) in the 2016 national and local elections, provided there was no participation of domestic terror groups; suspected politically-motivated violent incidents involving elected government officials (EGO)/aspirants/supporters from January 2018 to present and those who filed their COCs until the start of the election period; and validated reports of candidates involved in illegal drug groups and such support will likely lead to election violence, among others.
Meanwhile, orange category towns are San Joaquin, Miag-ao, Tubungan, Igbaras, Alimodian, Janiuay, Lambunao, Leon, and Bingawan in Iloilo; Culasi, Hamtic, Sebaste, Sibalom, Valderama, and San Remigio in Antique province; Tapaz, Maayon, and Cuartero in Capiz; and Toboso, Himamaylan, Isabela, Hinobaan, and Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental.
An area is considered under orange category if it has a combination of two or more factors under yellow category; has existence of serious armed threat posed by the communist terrorist group or CTG (New People’s Army) and/or local terrorist groups or LTG (BIFF, ASG, AKP and rogue elements of the MNLF/MILF) and/or other analogous groups; reports of the collection of permit to win/permit to campaign by CTGs and/or extortion by LTGs and/or other analogous groups; and reports on the existence of CTG/LTG supported candidates.
Red category areas, meanwhile, are areas with the existence of factors under the categories yellow and orange.
From the 133 cities and towns in the region, 90 fell under the green category or areas that are considered relatively peaceful.
For the latest updates about this story, visit the Philippine News Agency website
