Lesser areas of concern in 2022 polls than 2019: DILG
There are lesser areas of concern in the 2020 elections than the 2019 midterm polls, a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) official said on Monday.
During the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said compared to 300 election hotspots recorded this year, there were 946 areas that were listed in 2019.
"Well the good news is that the election hotspots if we could remember in 2019, we had 946 and 546 red areas of concern. So now we are looking at 125 red areas, 110 towns and 15 cities, and if were going to combine the red, orange and yellow areas, it is just around 300 compared to the 946 in the last election," he said.
"This is really an improvement in the peace and order situation in the country," he added.
During the briefing, Malaya reiterated the directive of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano over the areas of concern.
"The directive of Sec. Ano to the PNP is to suppress all election related violence. To organize the regional special operations task group of the PNP which would led by a senior official from the regional office. The deployment of our mobile force battalions (MFBs) in the areas of concern and even if necessary deploy the Special Action Forces in the areas to ensure the safety of our people," he said.
"The directive of Secretary Ano is for focused deployment and operations by the PNP in those areas. On the part of the local governments the directives of Secretary Ano is
that the DILG will not tolerate any form of election violence nor it would tolerate the private armed groups and the use of private armies to harass and intimidate voters," he added.
Malaya said the PNP has deployed around 16,820 PNP officers nationwide, and more than 1,200 police commissioned officers while 15,612 are police non-commissioned officers.
"They are to be assigned to election related duties. In NCR along we have 2,584 police officers who are undergoing training to prepare to fulfill their election duties. We deploy more policemen because the DILG and NPA is ensuring the peaceful conduct of election," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
