MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday, October 4, released the list of areas of concern for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.

Out of the 42,001 barangays in the country, 242 fall under the red category, 1,257 under orange, and 1,077 under yellow. The majority, 39,425 villages, are under the green category, signifying no security concerns.

More than half of the villages under the red category are located in BARMM.

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Based on Comelec’s color category system, green signifies an absence of security concerns, while yellow designates areas of concern. Orange is used for places of immediate concern, while red indicates a grave security concern.

Comelec, along with the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines, categorized these areas based on several factors, including:

• Suspected election-related violence
• Intense political rivalries
• Possible deployment of partisan or private armed groups by candidates
• Politically motivated election-related incidents
• History of areas being declared as concerns under Comelec control

Comelec anticipates that more villages will be classified under the red category as the election approaches.

“Historically, as the election draws near, the rivalry intensifies. Especially when the campaign period begins, emotions will run high, so we can expect more incidents, and higher categories will be classified under the red,” Commissioner Aimee Ferolino said in a press briefing.

Here are the areas falling under the different categories:

– Rappler.com