ILOILO City – Policemen have been ordered to “tightly monitor” six barangays here classified as “election areas of concern.”
Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, city police director, declined to name the six villages saying an assessment is ongoing.
The Regional Joint Security Control Center composed of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) is conducting the review.
According to Biñas, his men monitored the presence of “sectoral groups” sympathetic or supportive of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the six villages, thus their classification as “election areas of concern.”
It was previously reported that “intense political rivalry” among barangay election candidates led to their classification as poll areas of concern. This was not the case, said Biñas.
The city police director said the situation of the six villages is unique – there is no presence of rebels in their turfs but only sympathetic groups, thus they could not be classified outright as election hotspots or election watch list areas (EWAS).
“We would harness our resources to monitor these villages. There could be deployments of policemen and intelligence personnel,” said Biñas.
Chief Inspector Joem Malong, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), said any of the following factors in a village could lead to its EWAS classification. These are:
* intense political rivalry
* history of election-related violence
* insurgency problem.
According to Senior Inspector Shella Mae Sangrines, city police spokesperson, three of the six barangays were in the district of Jaro while the three others were in La Paz.
She did not discount the possibility that more villages may classified as “election areas of concern.”
There are 180 barangays in Iloilo City.
The May 14 synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections are on May 14. The campaign period is from May 4 to 12.
By classifying the six villages as “election areas of concern”, ICPO hopes to effectively address the peace and order concerns in these areas this election period.
The election period is from April 14 to May 21./PN
