BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – A ranking police officer in Western Visayas has confirmed that the initial list of areas of concern in the province is still being verified by an inter-agency council in the region as the official campaign period for the 2025 polls nears.
“It remains to be validated,” Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Solis told DNX on the four towns and a city classified under different categories based on the list released by Commissioner Aimee Ferolino who heads the poll body’s committee on the ban of firearms and security concerns.
Solis said the Regional Joint Security Control Center (RJS2C) will onduct its own verification on the status of Calatrava, Isabela, Cauayan, San Enrique towns, and Sipalay City that were placed under different categories.
The RJS2C is chaired by the regional director of the Commission on Elections and includes representatives from the uniformed services the Army, the National Police, and the Coast Guard – who will each have their assessment of prevailing conditions in the town related to the status of political rivalries in a locality, the history of poll-related cases or violence, and the presence of armed groups.
Isabela and San Enrique towns were placed under the “yellow” category while the towns of Calatrava and Cauayan and the city of Sipalay were under the “orange” category.
The Comelec has adopted a color-coding syatem this year to assess a locality’s security status with green for peaceful, yellow (with election-related incidents or rivalry without domestic terror involvement) orange (presence of elements under yellow or have serious armed threats), and red (having serious threats that places an area under potential control by the poll body).
The Army had earlier declared guerrilla fronts of the Communist New People’s Army to have been dismantled and only a few armed remnants remain in the province.
