COMELEC tags 2 cities, 5 towns as “Yellow Areas of Concern”
THE Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has classified two cities and five towns in Pangasinan as Yellow Election Areas of Concern, which means it will be given closer watch based on election-related incidents in previous polls and additional security forces may be deployed in those localities.
These are: the cities of Dagupan and Urdaneta, and the towns of Aguilar, Binmaley, Malasiqui, Mangaldan, and Sual.
In a press briefing on Thursday, January 9, the COMELEC Central Office said among the conditions for a “yellow” classification include the following: 1) A suspected election-related incident (ERI) occurring in the area during the last two elections, without the involvement of domestic terrorist groups; 2) A presence of intense partisan political rivalry, again without domestic terror group involvement; 3) Potential recruitment of Private Armed Groups (PAGs) in the area; 4) An occurrence of politically-motivated ERIs in the current election cycle, again without the involvement of domestic terror groups; and 5)The locality had previously been placed under COMELEC control.
If a town falls under any of these five categories, the commission may request and deploy additional support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Across Region I, a total of 19 areas have been classified under the Yellow category, while 106 have been designated as “Green” Safe.
No area in the region have been placed under the more critical “orange” or “red” categories.
In the entire country, 1,239 localities are considered green, 188 yellow, 177 orange, and 38 red with majority in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (Ahikam Pasion)
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