The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has recorded a total of 120 election hotspot areas nationwide.

"We already have the list of election areas of concern or what we call the hotspots particularly the red tag areas. I think we have about 15 cities and 105 municipalities," Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said in a press conference on Thursday.

However, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez noted that the election hotspot areas are still undergoing Comelec validation.

"Right now, we are undergoing validation and we hope that within the week or within what's left of the week we will be able to release the final list of areas under concern," he said.

"We respect the findings of the PNP and we believe that yes there is a basis for their findings. It's just that we have to check and cross check with our people on the ground regarding the situation," he added.

Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for operations Lt. Gen. Ferdinand Divina added that police has recorded thousands of violations of minimum public health standards this month.

"On the national PNP monitoring on violation of minimum public health standards covering the period April 1 to 4 from the 17 regions in the country we have this figure 4,083 were the recorded violations of the MPHS ( minimum public health standards)," he said.

Divina said the recorded violations include not wearing face masks, violations on mass gatherings and the non-observance of physical distancing. Robina Asido/DMS