PNP tags 105 towns, 15 cities as election 'red' areas

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said it listed 105 towns and 15 cities as election areas of concern under the highest red category.

At a press conference, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said they already have the list of areas of concern in light of the 2022 elections.

“We already have the list of the election areas of concern or what we call the hotspots. Particularly, the red-tagged areas. I think we have about 15 cities and 101 municipalities,” he said.

Police Lieutenant General Ferdinand Divina, PNP’s deputy chief for operations and head of task force for 2022 elections, said more focused deployment and operations will be enforced in these areas.

“I confirmed, as stated by our Secretary of Interior and Local Government that pertaining to the election areas of concern which are classified as red wherein it necessitates more focused deployment and operations on the part of the PNP, there are 105 nationwide na towns and additional 15 cities,” he said.

Divina said the specific names of the areas are already available but he deferred the decision for their release to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body is still validating the list that was submitted to them by the PNP. He said the official list of areas of concern may be released this week.

“We hope that within the week or within what's left in the week we will be able to release the final list of areas under concern,” he said.

PNP chief Police General Dionardo Carlos said they already placed regional special operations task groups (RSOTGs) in areas they considered as election areas of concern like in Samar and Masbate.

“Samar automatic meron na kaming kaagad nilagay because of history pero walang nangyayari doon. Masbate we already placed our RSOTGs,” he said.

(Automatically, we deployed RSOTGs in Samar because of its history but nothing is happening yet there. We already placed our RSOTGs in Masbate.)

The PNP classified the areas in the country into four color-coded categories for the 2022 elections: green, yellow, orange, and red.

Areas classified as green are considered generally peaceful for the conduct of elections, according to the PNP.

Yellow areas have reported suspected election-related incidents in the past two polls, possible presence of armed groups, and intense political rivalries. Yellow areas are considered “areas of concern”.

Orange areas have a recorded presence of armed groups such as the New People's Army that may interrupt the polls. These are considered “areas of immediate concern”.

Meanwhile, red areas meet the parameters for yellow and orange areas. They will be placed under Comelec control. Security forces will focus on monitoring these areas with a possibility for violence and intense political fights among local candidates.—AOL, GMA News