BACOLOD City – All “election hotspots” in Negros Occidental must be identified as soon as possible, Provincial Election SupervisorJessie Suarez ordered the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo).
Election hotspots refer to areas with the presence of armed groups, like the New People’s Army, and areas where there is an “intense political rivalry,” according to Suarez.
He issued the order during the Provincial Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Council conference yesterday at the Social Hall in the provincial capitol.
The conference was in preparation for the upcoming Barangay and SangguniangKabataan (SK) elections on May 14.
Suarez said listing of the election hotspots will start on April 14, the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs), which is also the beginning of the election period.
Filing of COCs will end on April 20.
But the election supervisor said his office has already coordinated with the Noppo in monitoring potential election hotspots in the province.
They based their monitoring on the previous election-related incidents in the area, Suarez added.
Once the hotspots are identified, additional security personnel will be deployed there.
This is aside from the installation of checkpoints in strategic areas across Negros Occidental, mobile and beat patrol operations, and the election gun ban aimed at ensuring a “peaceful and orderly election,” the Noppo said.
The election period will end on May 21, during which the Comelec prohibits the “alteration of precincts or establishment of new precincts, carrying of firearms or other deadly weapons, use of security personnel or bodyguards by candidates, transfer of officers and employees in the civil service, and suspension of any elective local officer.”/PN
