Comelec to PNP: Review BARMM security for polls
Comelec Chairman Atty. George Erwin Garcia (center) at the commencement of ballot certification for the 2025 National and Local Elections held in Amoranto Stadium, Quezon City. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia has asked the Philippine National Police to reassess the security situation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the run-up to the May 12 elections, in light of a recent spike of violent incidents in the region.
During a roundtable discussion with reporters and editors of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Inquirer.net on Thursday, Garcia said the commission would defer to the PNP on the matter as the agency was in the best position to evaluate the situation in the region and recommend a new security classification for its localities.
The classification, which is based on inputs from the police, military and intelligence communities, guides the degree of focus that the Comelec and security agencies will provide to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 12 elections.
Areas throughout the country are classified into four categories: “red” for those with grave security concerns due to a history of violence and existing armed threats, “orange” for those with serious armed threats, “yellow” for those with a history of poll-related violence, and “green” for those with no known threats to the peaceful conduct of the elections.
Based on a Comelec list in January, the BARMM has 34 localities under the red category. These are Al Barka and Hadji Muhammad Ajul towns in Basilan province; Marawi City and the towns of Butig, Maguing, Tubaran, Tugaya, Bacolod Kalawi, Bacolod Grande, Balindong, Bayang, Binidayan, Buadiposo Buntong, Marantao, Marogong, Pualas and Saguiaran in Lanao del Sur province; and the BARMM’s regional capital Cotabato City, and Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte province.
Also included in this category are the towns of Paglat, Rajah Buayan, South Upi, Sultan sa Barongis, Lambayong, Ampatuan, Datu Piang, Datu Salibo, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Mamasapano, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Buluan, Datu Paglas, Mangudadatu and Pandag in Maguindanao del Sur province.
Several localities in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Sur are known to have hosted the presence of Islamic State-linked militants.
Earlier, the nongovernment group Climate Conflict Action warned of a shaping trend of politicians employing the services of violent extremists to beef up their machinery for the midterm polls.
Garcia noted that the recent surge in violence has been reported in Cotabato City and Maguindanao provinces.
He appealed to the Bangsamoro people and the region’s leaders to help authorities ensure a peaceful balloting to make its results credible and reflective of their will.
More troops
In Davao City, a Bangsamoro official said the regional government would boost the presence of security forces in the region to address the uptick of violence noted since the start of the election period.
Cabinet Secretary Mohd Asnin Pendatun, the BARMM spokesperson, said the Regional Peace and Order Council recently passed a resolution to address the increase in the incidence of violence since the start of the election season.
“We have to address the security concern looming in the area…one of the resolutions to address this is to increase the presence and more patrolling of security forces in the areas that are contested,” Pendatun told reporters on the sidelines of the gathering of the United Kingdom-funded Westminster Foundation for Democracy in Davao.
He said that the Comelec also noted that the majority of the election hot spots and areas of concern were in the BARMM, which, he said, “speaks a lot about the need to ensure the security situation in the area.”
He said that historically, violence in the region tended to increase during the election season but added that the Bangsamoro security sector was still sorting out which of the recent killings were election-related.
