11 Negros towns, cities on poll watch list

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Police have placed at least five cities and six towns in Negros Occidental under their election watch list.

Senior Superintendent Celestino Guara Jr., acting Negros Occidental police director, identified the poll hotspots as the cities of Escalante, Cadiz, Victorias, Himamaylan, and Sipalay, and the towns of Binalbagan, Manapla, Toboso, Calatrava, Moises Padilla, and Ilog.

Col. Oscar Lactao, commander of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Battalion, said the list is based on previous elections, and is still being verified if intense political rivalries and private armies and threat groups still exist in these areas.

There have been changes in leadership and in the political and economic landscape so any of these areas could be upgraded or degraded or totally removed from the watch list, Lactao added.

Guara said they are still exchanging notes with the intelligence network to verify the actual conditions in these areas to update the election watch list.

Lactao and Guara gave assurance that they would continue their peacekeeping efforts to ensure peaceful and credible elections in May.