946 election hotspots identified

MANILA, Philippines — A week to go before the midterm polls, authorities have identified 946 election “hot spots,” with three cities and municipalities placed under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In a press briefing at Camp Crame on Tuesday, Philippine National Police chief, Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, said Moises Padilla town in Negros Occidental province has been added with Cotabato City in Maguindanao and Daraga town in Albay as areas under Comelec control.

The number of areas considered “red,” or “areas of grave concern” — the highest category of hot spots which requires increased security deployment — has been pegged at 540.

These are mostly in Mindanao, as the Comelec placed the entire region under the “red” category last March.

“Orange” hot spot, or areas of “immediate concern,” now number 249, while “yellow” hot spots, or simply “areas of concern,” number 154.

Areas placed under the yellow category are those with a history of election-related incidents in the last two elections, a history of intense political rivalry, and areas that had been previously declared under Comelec control.

Areas under the orange category include areas where there are serious armed threats by some groups.

PNP on full alert

“Red” areas are those that exhibit the combined characteristics of both yellow and orange categories.

In an earlier press conference at Camp Aguinaldo, Albayalde said incidents of election-related violence decreased this year compared to those of previous national election years.

So far, the PNP does not see any security threat to the coming polls, although the PNP has already been placed on full alert status which requires all personnel to be on duty.

The PNP plans to deploy 160,000 police on Election Day—at least two police officers in each of the 36,000 polling centers, and around 100,000 to man police assistance desks.

The PNP has also trained 1,404 personnel to complement or substitute for teachers, should there be a shortage of teachers rendering election duties.

On Tuesday, the PNP launched its National Election Monitoring Action Center in Camp Crame, which would give real-time updates from polling centers.