Bacolod City under yellow category

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – This city is under the yellow category of the Election Watchlist Areas (EWAS) due to intense political rivalries relative to the May 9, 2022 elections.

Police Lt. Abegael Donasco, provincial police deputy spokesperson, said Tuesday that the 18 towns and cities tagged in the EWAS of Negros Occidental have remained peaceful as of this time.

Donasco said that since the campaign period for local candidates started, they have not received any election related incidents or quarrels between rival political factions.

But armed skirmishes between government forces and New People’s Army ensued in the hinterland areas of Himamaylan City, Cauayan and Isabela, which were included in the list of orange category.

Donasco said they will continue to monitor the 18 areas of concerns to ensure that the local government units will remain peaceful, especially on the May 9 election day.

Category Orange refers to areas of immediate concern, where there is serious armed threat, while those under Category Red are tagged as areas of grave concern.

Placed under the red category are the towns of Calatrava, Moises Padilla and Candoni as well as Escalante City due to serious armed threats and previous election-related cases of violence.