NOPPO preparing election watchlist for 2010 polls
BACOLOD CITY — With still about six months remaining before the National and Local elections in May ofnext year, the Negros Occidental PNP is finalizing the Election Watchlist of Areas in the province based on the criteria provided by Police Regional Office 6.
Police Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr, public information officer of NOPPO, said that the 31 chiefs of police in Negros Occidental were given until November 15 to submit their list of “election hotspots” in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Santotome stressed that Category I are areas where the possibility of occurence of politically motivated violent incidents is high.
On the other hand, Category II are areas where there are serious armed threats posed by the Local Communist Movement and SPSGs.
Election-related violent incident (ERVI) are violent incidents which could affect or disruptthe electoral proceedingsin the area or create a form of political tension that could eventually upset the electoral process, not only in the site of the incident but also in the surrounding areas on election day.
“These incidents can be classified as grave/serious and less grave/serious in nature”, added Santotome.
Negros Occidental PNP provincial director Police Senior Superintendent Manuel Felix said that NOPPO will submit the list of election hotspots in Negros Occidental to Police Regional Office 6 based on the sample format provided by Camp Delgado by next week for consolidation.
