THE Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (Noppo) has started setting up election security plans to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May 9 national and local elections in the province.

Noppo Community Affairs Chief Lieutenant Colonel Ruben Verbo said the PNP in the province has unofficially identified and monitors 216 of the 557 barangays in the province as election watchlist areas or hotspots.

The parameters, which serve as guidelines in classifying an area as a hotspot, include the presence of intense political rivalry, presence of threat groups, and history of election-related violent incidents.

But for now, Verbo said the peace and order situation is generally peaceful.

He said some election-related hostilities in the past stemmed from intense political rivalries of candidates vying for local posts, vote buying, and presence of communist terrorist groups (CTGs) in the province.

For the local elective posts, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) set the campaign period from March 25 to May 7.

Verbo said vote-buying during elections is a challenge for the law enforcement due to some technicalities.

"We arrested vote buyers before and filed cases but we haven’t convicted any cases (which have been) dismissed due to technicality,” he added.

The police colonel warns politicians in the province not to engage in vote-buying. (PIA)