CABANATUAN CITY—The entire Central Luzon—consisting of seven provinces, 14 cities, 116 municipalities and 3,102 barangays—has been included in the list of so-called Election Watch List Areas of the Philippine National Police less than five months before the synchronized national and local elections.
Meanwhile, Chief Supt. Rudy Lacadin, PNP regional director for Central Luzon, said five cities and 27 municipalities in Nueva Ecija, the region’s largest province; three cities and 21 towns in Bulacan, one highly urbanized city, two component cities and 19 towns in Pampanga, one city and 11 towns in Bataan, one city and 17 towns in Tarlac, one HUC and 13 towns in Zambales and eight towns in Aurora have been identified as included as areas of concern.
Lacadin said the inclusion of all the provinces in the EWAS list is a departure from the previous 31 cities and towns identified earlier this month by the PNP Regional Office 3 based in Camp Olivas, Pampanga. The 31 were based on histories of political violence and intense political rivalries.
The previous list was presented by Lacadin during the first regional joint security coordinating center conference attended last Jan. 11 by officials from the Commission on Elections, the PNP and the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based at the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Nueva Ecija.
The original list includes the towns of Baler, Dingalan and Maria Aurora in Aurora; Dinalupihan and Limay in Bataan; Baliuag, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Meycauayan, San Ildefonso, San Miguel and San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan; Aliaga, Bongabon, Cabiao, Gen. Tinio, Licab, Pantabangan, Quezon, San Antonio, San Leonardo, Sto. Domingo, Talavera, Talugtug and Zaragoza and the cities of Cabanatuan, Gapan and Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.
In Pampanga, the previous list included the towns of Arayat, Masantol, and Mexico; Bamban, Capas, Mayantoc, Paniqui, San Jose, San Manuel and Tarlac City in Tarlac; and Botolan, Castillejos, and Masinloc in Zambales.
“From the previous 31, now all the towns and cities in Central Luzon are treated equal,” he said.
He said it was wrong not to include an area where there was no previous election-related violence because these incidents cannot be predicted or foreseen.
“You might surmise that there were no previous incidents. Yes. But what if something happens? You might even blame me,” he said.
Lacadin said they will be installing one checkpoint per city and town for the purpose of implementing the Comelec-imposed gun ban and the intensified campaign loose firearms, local insurgents and syndicated crime groups.