BAGUIO CITY –The final list of possible election hotspots in the region for the upcoming May 2019 elections is expected to be out soon even as elections in the Cordillera have been generally peaceful.
“The PJSCCs (Provincial Joint Security Control Center) were tasked to finalize the list of areas which will be declared as election hotspots in their respective areas of responsibility based on the resolution released by the COMELEC en banc which categorize them in four categories,” COMELEC-Cordillera Regional Director Julius Torres said during Second Regional Joint Security Control Center command conference last week.
Torres said that the respective Police Provincial Offices have already tentative list of election hotspots but these lists should be re-assessed by the PJSCCs and be submitted for validation of the RJSCC and to be submitted to the COMELEC En Banc.
“Initially, we are trying to finalize the list of potential election areas of concern and hot spots. We have to categorize them into four categories and we already have an initial list which still needs changes,” he said.
Torres explained that the declaration of election hotspots is based on the resolution by the COMELEC En Banc which has four categories- Category Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.
Category Green is for areas with no security concerns or relatively peaceful and orderly. Category Yellow covers those with occurrence of suspected election-related incidents (ERI) in the last two elections provided there is existence of intense political rivalry with no participation of domestic terror groups, possible employment of partisan armed groups by the candidates in the area, the occurrence of politically motivated ERI in the current election period provided there is no participation of domestic terror groups or the area has been previously declared under COMELEC Control.
Areas shall be placed under Category Orange if there is a combination of two or more factors under Category Yellow, or there is serious armed threats posed by the New Peoples Army, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Abu Sayyaf group and other rogue elements of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other analogous groups.
For Category Red, there is existence of one or more factors described under Category Yellow, together with serious armed threats passed by the NPA, BIFF, ASG, and the rogue elements of the MNLF and MILF and other analogous groups under Category Orange.
Police Regional Office – Cordillera Regional Director PCSupt. Rolando Nana said that he has already given directives to the provincial commanders to assess the initial lists they have and make sure to follow the guidelines set by the COMELEC.
The election hotspots will be the focus of police security operations for the possible occurrence of political-related violence during the conduct of the elections.
The province of Abra had always been under election watchlist as political- related violence was a known issue there due to tight rivalry among politicians. However, the situation changed during the 2013 local election when no election-related incident was recorded in the area. **JDP/RMC –PIA CAR
