By Aaron B. Recuenco
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Bicol region have the most number of hot spots in the latest intelligence monitoring and security assessment for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14.
Seven thousand, nine-hundred fifteen election hotspots have been identified, with 1,415 in the ARMM and 1,304 in the Bicol region, mostly in Masbate.
Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police, said election hotspots were determined and categorized into three using some parameters to indicate which areas violence would likely occur.
Category 1 uses the parameter of having a history of intense political rivalry among local candidates and their supporters. Two-thousand, three-hundred twenty-five areas are under Category 1, most of them in Bicol with 728, followed by Central Luzon with 462, and Calabarzon with 327.
Category 2 has 4,971 areas, most of them in Mindanao, with ARMM leading with 827, followed by Central Mindanao with 614, and Bicol with 516.
Category 2 areas have the presence of armed groups which include the New People’s Army, Moro rebels, Abu Sayyaf, and other threat groups.
Bulalacao said Category 3 has the presence of all threats – from intense political rivalry, presence of threat groups, and partisan armed groups. The ARMM has 419 areas under Category 3 followed by Bicol with 60, Central Mindanao with 42, Calabarzon with 33, Cagayan Valley, 20; Cordillera Administrative Region, 15, and Northern Mindanao, 12.
