• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Commission on Elections in Negros Occidental is finalizing its contingency plans for the May 2025 polls amid threats of an eruption from Mt. Kanlaon.
However, Provincial Election Supervisor Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria said that their contingency plans will largely depend on the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), the local disaster council of affected local government units, Phivolcs, and other government agencies.
“Our plan is dependent on where the people will be evacuated, if there is an evacuation. It also depends on the level of the volcanic eruption,” Ananoria said.
Lionel Marco Castillano, chief of the Comelec-Negros Island Region, said that security centers in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental were given one month to come up with contingency plans, subject to the approval of the NIR joint security coordinating center.
“Our plan is to conduct the elections where the evacuees are,” Castillano said, noting that the transfer of voting precincts will need a Comelec resolution.
Ananoria said they will be coordinating with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Councils in the establishment of “contingent polling centers” in schools.
In an advisory issued by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Jan. 16, state volcanologists recorded two more emission events at Mt. Kanlaon (14 to 22 minutes long) and 13 volcanic quakes, including two volcanic tremors.
If polling centers are tapped as evacuation centers, Ananoria said they will further come up with makeshift polling centers even if Alert Level 3 remains hoisted over Kanlaon volcano. | GB
