OVER 500 towns and cities in the country have been included in the PNP’s initial list of election hotspots for next year’s national and local elections, according to a police intelligence official.
Brig. Michael Dubria, head of the PNP directorate for intelligence, said 46 towns and cities are classified under Category Red, meaning they can be placed under the control of the Commission on Elections.
“Our total election hotspots per our data is about 488 towns and 58 cities but then that is subject for validation,” Dubria told a press briefing at the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame.
“The data that we have in the Philippine National Police was processed under our office, the Directorate for Intelligence. And this is a raw data because we will be having our conference tomorrow with the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” added Dubria.
The PNP, the Armed Forces, and the Philippine Coast Guard are set to meet today as part of the Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Council, with next year’s poll high in the agenda.
“The figure that we have to be concerned is the Red or the Category Red. There are about four categories considered as election hotspots. We have the Green, Yellow, Orange and Red,” said Dubria.
An area is included in Category Green if it has no security concern and is relatively peaceful and orderly while one is included in Category Yellow if it has any of the following factors: occurrence of suspected election-related incidents in the last election, existence of intense partisan political rivalry, possible employment of partisan armed groups, occurrence of politically-motivated election-related incidents, and previously declared under the control of the Commission on Elections.
An area is placed under Category Orange if it has a combination of two or more factors under Category Yellow or there is serious armed threat in the area while an area is classified under Category Red if it has one or three more factors under Yellow Category, with serious armed threats posed by threat groups.
“The good thing about this is that under the Red category we only have only three percent out of the total 1,438 number of towns in the country and we also have five percent percent of 146 cities in the country.
“That’s our figure (on areas under Category Red), translated into 39 towns and seven cities. Those are the most critical areas that we are monitoring,” Dubria said.
He said the election hotspots are mostly in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol region, Western Visayas and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
PNP chief Dionardo Carlos stressed the data mentioned by Dubria come only from the PNP. “Again, these are just PNP data. This will be validated through the JPSCC with the AFP and the PCG,” said Carlos.
Carlos said the PNP will continue to monitor the election hotspots and work to improve the situation in these areas.
