THE provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) scheduled a meeting with the military and police to finalize security plans for the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Comelec Provincial Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said the meeting will be held before the end of this month.
He said they need the final list of candidates running in the elections to determine which areas would be election hotspots.
The deadline for the filing of Certificates of Candidacy (COC) is scheduled on Friday this week, April 20.
The Comelec regional office recorded 1,593 candidates who filed their COCs last Saturday, the first day of registration.
“So after they file their COC this April 20, maybe the following week, we can sit down with the police and army to discuss this matter,” Castillano said.
Castillano also said election hotspots are identified based on factors like intense political rivalry, presence of private armies, rebel groups and criminal gangs and proliferation of loose firearms.
In Manila, Camp Crame identified 5,744 barangays in the country on their watchlist of election hotspot areas.
Most of these barangays are in the Bicol region with 1,258 barangays, followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 832, and Central Luzon with 504. with an Inquirer report