No hotspots, just areas of concern

Despite the political pot heating up, no area in the Central Visayas Region has yet been considered as an election hot spot based on the report submitted by the Philippine National Police to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Three towns in northern Cebu are however considered as areas of concern.

PRO-7 Director Silverio Alarcio is yet to identify areas that he would recommend would be put under Comelec control in preparation for the May 14 elections.

Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra was given a presentation by Alarcio and also the director of Region-6 at the PRO-7 headquarters yesterday to apprise him of the situation.

The police though have identified certain areas of concern for purposes of monitoring the political developments in such places.

Borra said that three parameters have to be present so that a place or area can be recommended to be put under Comelec control.

First is the strong influence of New People's Army in the area.

Second, is election related violence and lastly, intense political rivalry.

"These are the three areas of concern for purposes of defining and identifying what would be the most logical and probable areas for purposes of Comelec control," Borra said.

"So far, at this point in time, the assessment I gathered from the PNP presentation, it would seem that both regions, have not recommended area for Comelec control out of areas of immediate concern," Borra said.

While places identified as areas of immediate concern are kept confidential during the conference, provincial election supervisor Edwin Cadungog told the press that Cebu province has three towns in the north identified as areas of immediate concern. He would not however name them.

Cadungog said that they are still waiting for the recommendation of the PNP if the areas are to be placed under Comelec control.

Junie's Suggestion

On the suggestion of former Congressman Celestino "Junie" Martinez Jr. to deploy members of civic organizations as well as the media in places declared to be election hot spots, Borra said that Martinez, who lost in the gubernatorial race in 2004 elections, is entitled to his opinion.

"The point is, when the NPA will be holding their guns, the only answer is gun. The language of violence can only be responded by another language of violence," Borra said.

Borra said that it is an insult to the PNP and AFP as they are tasked to run after the enemies of the state and not the non-government organization.

"Illogical, improper, improvident, so we would like to believe that some people would first analyze their statement," Borra said.

No Hotspots, But...

The police are however monitoring at least 39 municipalities under the jurisdiction of PRO- 7 that has previous history of election related violence whether caused by political rivalries or insurgency.

This is to ensure that enough police forces would be ready to be deployed in these areas to maintain honest, orderly and peaceful elections.

Alarcio said that they have put special attention on areas had election related violence during the 2004 elections.

Alarcio said that they are now vwerifying sightings of armed men in the mid-northern Cebu area. He would like to make sure if they are NPA rebels or just henchmen of politicians.

Meanwhile, the "areas of concern" are those places that the authorities believed NPAs has strong influence to the locals, the police believed that NPA might be imposing "campaign taxes" for political campaigns. Sr. Supt. Augusto M. Marquez, Jr., chief of the Regional Investigation and Intelligence Division (RIID) has two categories for the "areas of concern." He said that under the PRO7, they have recorded 29 municipalities with previous violent elections, but refused to name them for fear of causing undue alarm to the populace of these areas.

Of the 29 municipalities, ten are in Cebu, another ten in Bohol Province and nine municipalities in Negros Oriental.

While the remaining 10 municipalities fall under the category two, these are areas that are suspected to have strong presence of NPA influence in some of its barangays that in any time might cause violence during the election period, especially when NPAs start collecting campaign taxes from politicians.

The areas in Cebu are Tuburan, Catmon, Asturias towns and Danao City while in Bohol Province theses are the municipalities of Danao, Inabanga, Buenavista and Bilar. Areas in Negros Oriental suspected to have strong NPA influence are the municipalities of Guihulngan and Kanlaon.

But Marquez clarified that there is no such thing as NPA infiltrated areas or NPA controlled areas in Central Visayas but admitted that they recorded 76 barangays that are suspected to have NPA influence.-(/NLQ)