- GILBERT BAYORAN
Provincial Comelec supervisor, Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria, said April 3 that they will start assessing possible Election Watchlist Areas (EWAS) in Negros Occidental, in connection with the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan synchronized elections this year, after the filing of the Certificate of Candidacy (COC).
The COC filing is from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2, with the BSKE set on Oct. 30.
The AFP Visayas Command earlier tagged 17 areas in Negros Occidental as EWAs due to local insurgency activities.
Ananoria said that the initial identification of possible EWAs is part of the Viscom routine job, based on their parameters, such as the insurgency affectation of a barangay.
The Joint Peace Security Coordinating Center, which is composed of AFP and PNP, and headed by the Comelec, is yet to be activated in Negros Occidental.
Ananoria said they are still waiting for its activation in the national level before it will be cascaded to the regional, provincial, city, and municipal level.
After the filing of the COC, he said that they may be able to determine what areas are hotly contested during the campaign period, in order to have a single list of EWAs in the province./GB
