Security officials are keeping an eye on a total of 403 cities and municipalities which are classified under areas of concern for the midterm elections on May 12.
Of the figure, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia said 188 of them are under Yellow category which means the towns or cities have a history of election-related incidents in the last two elections and that there is a possibility of election-related violent incidents due to history of private armed groups or election violence.
On the other hand, 177 are under the Orange category which means there are serious armed threats.
A total of 38 towns and cities are under the Red category which means there is a high threat of election violence and that the areas are being considered to be under Comelec control.
Garcia, however, said that they are also keeping an eye on 1,239 other towns and cities under the Green category since there is no 100 percent assurance that elections would be peaceful.
“Green means there is no threat of any election-related violence but we are also on guard since there are some cases that those under Green suddenly become Red as the election day nears,” said Garcia during the activation of the National Election Monitoring Center (NEMAC) Camp Crame in Quezon City on Thursday, Jan. 9.
While there are 38 towns and cities under Red category, Garcia said they are hoping that the security situation in the areas would finally be properly addressed in order to do away with Comelec intervention.
He then urged local politicians and candidates to cooperate with the security measures under election areas of concern in order to ensure peaceful and orderly conduct of elections.
ERIs
The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported 120 possible election-related incidents in 2024 but Garcia said only 12 of them could be classified as election-related.
He said investigation is still ongoing regarding the cases reported by the PNP.
“Maybe we could also come up with the proper definition (of election-related incidents) so that even the members of the media would be guided. For instance, if a barangay captain was held up or the house of a mayor was robbed, could they be classified as ERI?,” said Garcia.
Bodycams and CCTVs
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said they have consistently intensified the operations and other campaigns to ensure the peaceful conduct of elections, particularly in running after private armed groups and loose firearms.
But he said the election security measures could be reinforced with the use of communication technology such as the body-worn cameras on the side of the policemen and the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTVs) in the communities.
As policemen are usually being tapped to secure elections, Marbil said he made sure that all body-worn cameras are distributed on the ground and are properly working.
“We now have more body-worn cameras that we will be using. We also instructed our commanders to install CCTVs in their areas,” said Marbil.
“Let the local government also install CCTVs not only for crime prevention but it will help us in the elections. It will have more transparency because we can monitor the situation on the CCTV real time,” said Marbil.
‘Nag-suntukan na lang’
For his part, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr. shared the strategies he implemented when he was still the commander of military forces in Mindanao.
During the 2016 elections, Brawner said he was tasked to secure the peaceful conduct of elections in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and Lanao del Sur during the 2019 polls as the brigade commander in Lanao del Sur.
In both the national elections, Brawner said there was no violent incident that happened, except for the case of rido (clan war) in Lanao del Sur.
“What did we do? Together with the PNP under the direction of the Comelec, we deployed many personnel as a deterrent and aside from that we were very strict in the implementation of the gun ban,” said Brawner.
The strict implementation of the gun ban, he said, sparked anger among incumbent local executives as even the firearms of their bodyguards were confiscated.
“So we took their firearms and with the absence of the firearms, the supporters of the candidates just engaged in fistfights. At least no firearms were used,” said Brawner.
Brawner said they intend to replicate such a success story of peaceful elections in coordination with the PNP and the Comelec.