The Provincial Joint Security Coordinating Center (PJSCC) has recommended 55 election areas of concern in Negros Occidental, Brig. Gen. Orlando Edralin, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said Tuesday, September 5.
However, this has to be approved by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that will then make an announcement, he said, with the election period for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls having already started.
There were formerly 101 areas of concern, he said.
The parameters for identifying election areas of concern are the presence of heightened political rivalry, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army or private armed groups, he said.
The 55 barangays recommended as election areas of concern was decided upon by the PJSCC composed of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard and the Comelec, Edralin said.
So far they have not monitored rebels requiring candidates to avail of permits to campaign, “but we expect it and we will not allow it to happen,” he said.
Edralin also reiterated that the CPP-NPA forces in Negros have considerably weakened.
The NPA combatants in Central Negros 1 and 2 are considered insignificant in number, he said.
Their combatants per guerilla front are about nine to twelve, he said.
The NPA’s Northern Negros Front has been dismantled but they expect them to attempt to recover the areas they lost, Edralin also said.
“We are making sure that they cannot recover their formerly influenced areas,” he said.*