POLICE Regional Office (PRO)-Eastern Visayas Director Dionardo Carlos is aiming for a “gunless” and peaceful May 13 elections through the launching of “Safekeeping of Firearms Caravan” in the region on March 4.

“The overall success of the upcoming elections measures up how effective we are as partners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Philippine Army-8th Infantry Division, and other concerned government agencies. So by all means, we will do the necessary steps to make everything smooth,” said Carlos.

He said the caravan is an important intervention to “eradicate election-related crimes and improve public safety operations before, during, and after elections.”

“This caravan is conceptualized as an adaptation to National Headquarters’ concept of 5Ps (Predict, Prevent, Prepare, Perform and Post Action and Assessment) of crisis management in the implementation of security and safety coverage for the 2019 midterm elections,” Carlos said.

The regional police command said they are not discounting the possibility of “same intense rivalry that might happen again this coming elections,” noting that the whole Eastern Visayas region was characterized with intense political rivalries particularly in some areas of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Leyte.

“Most likely, the services of criminal gang or criminal terrorist groups may be employed to undertake nefarious activities so as to influence the outcome of the elections,” said Carlos.

Earlier, the Comelec in the region identified 70 out of the 4,390 barangays as “areas of concern.”

The number, however, is smaller compared to 284 villages tagged as “areas of concern” in last year’s barangay elections.

According to the Comelec, “areas of concern” will be declared if the communities have election-related violent incidents and intense political rivalry.

“Areas of immediate concern,” meanwhile, exhibit armed threat by New People’s Army (NPA), Moro rebels, and other lawless forces, while “areas of grave concern” are those where the two above-mentioned categories are found, which may "warrant the motu proprio declaration of Comelec control."

Of the 701 election hotspots in the country, the PNP headquarters in Manila identified three “areas of grave concern” in Eastern Visayas last week. (SunStar Philippines)