THE Philippine National Police (PNP) listed a total of 105 towns and 15 cities whom it considers falling under the “red” areas category that should be monitored in relation to the May 9 national and local elections.
Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said the list of areas will be the basis of the PNP to intensify its monitoring of the situation as the elections draw near.
“We already have the list of the election areas of concern or what we call the hotspots. Particularly, the red-tagged areas. I think we have about 15 cities and 101 municipalities,” according to Año.
On the other hand, Police Lieutenant General Ferdinand Divina, PNP deputy chief for operations and task force head for the 2022 elections, said they will enforce a more focused and strategic distribution of personnel and operations in areas considered as “hotspots.”
“I confirmed, as stated by our Secretary of Interior and Local Government that pertaining to the election areas of concern which are classified as red wherein it necessitates more focused deployment and operations on the part of the PNP, there are 105 nationwide na towns and additional 15 cities,” according to Divina.
Divina said he will leave it up to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the releasing of the list of election hotspots.
On the other hand, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the list submitted by the PNP is still under validation.
“We hope that within the week or within what’s left in the week we will be able to release the final list of areas under concern,” Jimenez added.
The PNP came up with four colors to signify the category of areas in the country every time there is an election, which includes green, yellow, orange at red.
It is considered to be peaceful overall to hold elections in an area under the green category, while the yellow areas or areas of concern is if there is a reported incident in an area that is possibly related to the election, possible presence of armed groups, and fierce armed clashes between political clans.
The orange areas or areas of immediate concern is when there is confirmed presence of armed groups such as the New People’s Army that may disrupt the elections.
Areas will be placed under the red category if the parameters for the yellow and orange areas are recorded. These areas will be placed under Comelec control and will be heavily guarded by law enforcement agencies.