BACOLOD City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will place Escalante City in Negros Occidental under “Category Orange” following the killing of the incumbent councilor Bernardino Patigas Sr. last Monday.
Provincial Election supervisor Salud Milagros Villanueva said the incident can be considered as election-related.
“That’s the reason why we will re-categorize Escalante City from “Yellow”, to “Orange,” he said.
The Provincial Joint Security Control Center has recommended the re-categorization in a meeting on Tuesday.
In view of the May 2019 elections, Comelec uses color coding in classifying poll hotspots – these are “Category Green”, “Category Yellow”, “Category Orange”, and “Category Red.”
Under “Category Green” are “relatively peaceful” areas and do not have security issues on the upcoming local and national polls.
Towns or cities under “Category Yellow” meanwhile have reports of collection of permit to win or campaign and presence of serious threats from local terrorist group.
“Category Orange” are “areas of immediate concern” where there is serious armed threat posed by communist rebels and other lawless elements.
The potential or active presence of private armed group that can be utilized by candidates, occurrence of election-related incidents in previous elections and with history or current intense political rivalry are factors under “Category Red.”/PN
