Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday, October 25 urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), particularly the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ensure the full protection of the teachers that will be serving during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (BSKE) elections. 

This, after the Comelec identified 361 areas or barangays as election hotspots or under the red category. Election hotspots are areas where occurrences of suspected election-related incidents are high.

Areas placed under the red category show security threats posed by terrorist groups, or if the area has been declared under Comelec control.

“Ang ating mga guro ang nagsisilbing frontliners sa ating halalan at kasabay ng kanilang panunungkulan ang pagharap sa iba’t ibang mga panganib (Our teachers serve as the frontliners during our elections and part of the risks they face are the various kinds of threats that come with their mandate),” said Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.

The poll body, he noted, also expects the number of election hotspots might increase as the election day draws nearer.

“Bahagi ng pagpapanatili natin ng kaayusan sa darating na barangay at SK elections ang pagtiyak na bawat guro at poll watchers ay protektado mula sa ano mang banta ng panganib (Part of our efforts to maintain peace and order during the BSKE is to make sure that our teachers and poll watchers are protected from any harm),” he said. 

The poll body also identified 1,271 areas under the orange category and 1,199 areas under the yellow category.

Though threats of domestic terror groups are not present in yellow areas, there are suspected election-related violence in the last two elections, with intense political rivalry, and possible employment of partisan armed groups by candidates in the area.

There are also occurrences of politically motivated election-related incidents in the current election period, for areas placed under yellow alert.

On the other hand, areas placed under orange alert have a combination of two or more factors under yellow areas, meaning there are also serious armed threats from communist terrorist groups and other analogous threat groups declared by authorities.