Albayalde tags 5 provinces as ‘perennial’ election hotspots
PHILIPPINE National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday identified five provinces that were “perennial” election hotspots and would most likely be included on the PNP list for the 2019 midterm elections.
Abra, Masbate, Lanao, and Zamboanga provinces, however, are not the “top five,” said Albayalde. “We’re just saying these are the perennial ones in our list.”
In the 2016 elections, the PNP listed Masbate, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Pangasinan, Negros Oriental, and Maguindanao, Abra, Nueva Ecija, and Lanao del Norte as election hotspots.
Albayalde said the PNP would release the initial list of election hotspots after the final day of the filing of candidacy.
For an area to be declared as an election hotspot, it should have a history of “intense political rivalries and politically-motivated and election-related incidents in the past.”
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) previously reported 22 election-related violence and 10 fatalities during the May 9 national elections in 2016.
The AFP, PNP, and Commission on Elections (Comelec) described the previous election, however, as generally peaceful. ROY NARRA
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