ILOILO City – Six barangays in this city have been classified as “election areas of concern” by the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).
There is “intense political rivalry” among barangay election candidates in these villages, according to Senior Inspector Shella Mae Sangrines, city police spokesperson.
She declined to identify the six barangays. Monitoring and validation is ongoing, she explained.
Sangrines, however, said three 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.
Sangrines clarified that the six barangays, though having intense political rivalry, are technically not election hotspots yet or election watch list areas (EWAS).
Under the parameters of the Commission on Elections, the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines, an area can be classified an election hotspot if it has more than one of these three factors:
* intense political rivalry
* history of election-related violence
* insurgency problem
The six barangays have no insurgency program and no record of election-related violent incidents, said Sangrines.
In Iloilo province, 88 barangays have been classified as EWAS, according to the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, IPPO director, directed the police chiefs of the municipalities where these villages belong to tighten their security measures.
The IPPO further classified the 88 barangays into three categories – 1, 2 and 3.
Category 1 villages are those with a history of election-related violent incidents and with intense political rivalries.
Category 2 villages are those with internal security (insurgency) problems.
Category 3 villages are those having the concerns present in both categories 1 and 2.
The town of Calinog in the 3rd District has the most number of “election watch list areas” – 26 barangays.
Tayaba said the IPPO would be deploying more policemen in the 88 barangays.
He did not discount the possibility that more barangays would be included in the IPPO’s election watch list.
Iloilo province has a total of 1,721 barangays scattered in 42 municipalities and one component city (Passi)./PN
