THE situation in  Region 1 today remains peaceful and orderly with no untoward political incident untoward whatsoever that will make it fall under the classification of an area of grave concern.

This was disclosed by P/Lt. Colonel Abubakar Mangelen Jr., public information officer of Police Regional Office 1, during the Virtual Presser of the Philippine Information Agency Regional Office 1 on February 10 in San Fernando City, La Union.

He said that an area of grave concern is represented by color Red under the new color-coded classification set by the Regional Security Coordinating Center composed of the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and no province, municipality and city in the region is placed under code Red.

According to Mangelen, places under code Orange are areas of immediate concern and those under Yellow are areas of concern; and Green are areas with no security concern.

However, he clarified that while there is still no province placed under Code Orange, he said the police are continuously monitoring certain armed groups or private armies that politicians could use to intimidate voters in the coming election.

The presence of armed groups are among the parameters to be considered in declaring the security classification of a province, city or municipality, Mangelen clarified.

The police are also continuously monitoring areas where there is keen political rivalries among the candidates, a situation which increases tension in certain areas.

The other groups being monitored are armed communist insurgents previously seen crossing the boundaries between Region 1 to Regions 2 and 3. He said the recent surrender of four New People’s Army rebels showed that the program of the PNP to persuade them to surrender their armed struggle is working.

Meanwhile, PRO 1 in tandem with AFP, have arrested 52 individuals and confiscated 175 assorted firearms since the gun ban went into effect on January 9.

To enforce the gun ban  , there were 10,071 PNP/AFP Comelec checkpoint operations that were conducted in 122 checkpoints and 120 mobile checkpoints that utilized 3,354 personnel.

At the same time, Mangelen said 109 chiefs of police who had spent one year in their respective posts had been transferred to another assignment to prevent their familiarity with local officials that could affect their performance.

The police also reassigned PNP personnel with relatives running for elective posts in their current posts. (Leonardo Micua)

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