Police Regional Office-3 director Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan discusses the election security preparations for Central Luzon in an interview at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025.
At least 12 municipalities in Central Luzon were included in the list of areas that are recommended to be placed under areas of concern for the midterm elections on May 12, a police official said on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
Police Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan, director of the Police Regional Office-3, said they already submitted the recommendation to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for review and approval.
The 12 towns recommended to be placed under areas of concern, according to Maranan, are located in Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Bulacan and Pampanga.
“Historically, there have been intense political rivalry in some parts of Central Luzon. There were cases of violent incidents in the past elections and we are now monitoring, focusing on these areas,” said Maranan in an interview at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“Part of our security measure is the deployment of more resources in these areas, especially additional policemen,” he added.
Maranan said he also directed all police commanders to further intensify the operation against remnants of private armed groups and the loose firearms in the entire region.
Based on the data, there is an existing one private armed group in Central Luzon and Maranan said they have been keeping an eye on the group which is located in Nueva Ecija.
To ensure that the PAG would not be given an opportunity to strike, Maranan said he already ordered the deployment of an additional 200 personnel to secure the province.
“We are also complying with the instruction of our SILG (Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Jonvic Remulla) to dismantle all criminal gangs and private armed groups. In fact, in Region 3, this last quarter of 2024, we dismantled five criminal gangs),” said Maranan.
Based on the PRO3 data, a total of 1,346 firearms were confiscated from October to December 2024.