A total of 4,429 policemen, who underwent training as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI), will be placed on standby for poll duties in case of any untoward incident during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) on Oct. 30. 

PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr. said the BEI-trained policemen will be deployed as standby election inspectors at the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and in Northern Mindanao.

He said they will also be deployed in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) and Bicol region.

“They will be on standby in anticipation of the possible absence of designated Board of Election Inspectors to report for duty due to security reasons. They are trained to assume responsibilities as members of BEI,” said Acorda.

“Not that these areas are perennial election flash points, but some of the parameters for the classification of election areas are present in these localities, such as the presence of threat groups, historical data of election-related incidents and intense political rivalry; and presence of organized crime and partisan armed groups,” he added.

Police intelligence data earlier disclosed that most of the monitored private armed groups are in BARMM.  A number of areas with election security threats are also in BARMM. 

Based on the PNP data, a total of 356 barangays are classified under Red Category for the barangay elections while a total of 1,325 barangays are under the Orange Category. 

Red Category is described as areas of grave concern while Orange Category is described as areas of immediate concern where there is a serious armed threat.

A total of 1,196 barangays, on the other hand, are under the Yellow Category. 

Yellow Category means areas of concern because of their history of election-related incidents in the last elections, possible employment of partisan armed groups, occurrence of politically motivated election-related cases and had been previously declared under Comelec (Commission on Elections) control.