No MM barangay on PNP poll watchlist

 MANILA, Philippines - No barangay in Metro Manila was included in more than 7,000 areas placed under the Philippine National Police watchlist in connection with the Oct. 28 barangay elections, according to a PNP official.

Director Cipriano Querol, chief of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence, said officials predict a peaceful and orderly conduct of barangay polls, especially in Metro Manila’s 1,704 barangays. 

“We have not monitored any area of concern in Metro Manila. We classify barangays as watchlist, area of concern and area of immediate concern based on the intense political rivalry, presence of private armed groups and threat groups,” Querol said during a recent meeting of the national Joint Security Council Committee for the barangay elections in Camp Crame.

Querol said the 7,060 barangays on the watchlist are in Masbate, Compostela Valley, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Central Mindanao (Region 10) and Bicol Region (Region 5). There are 42,028 barangays nationwide.

Querol noted that from Sept. 28 to Oct 10, there were seven incidents wherein three barangay chairmen were killed and three were wounded. The filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for barangay chairman and kagawad or councilman is from Oct. 11 to 17.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Election (Comelec) will discuss today a request of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to ban campaign sorties from major roads to prevent traffic jams.

Commissioner Robert Christian Lim said he received last week a letter from MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino asking the poll body to regulate the holding of campaign sorties by candidates in the Oct. 28 barangay elections.

During the 2010 national elections, Lim said the Comelec banned campaign sorties along EDSA and C-5 Road. This time, he noted that the MMDA is asking for “greater regulation because campaign sorties are causing monstrous traffic (gridlocks).”