IN A bid to ensure safety and peaceful local elections in May, the Philippine Army’s 79th Infantry (Masaligan) Battalion deployed its personnel to augment security deployment by the local Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies in Northern Negros Occidental as the 45-day campaign period for local candidates kicked off Friday, March 25.The deployment of the troops to secure venues of political rallies is intended to deter threats from any individual or groups who are planning to humiliate security forces and destroy the prevailing peace in Northern Negros, 79th IB commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel J-jay Javines said.“We aspire for zero election-related violent incidents that is why we have deployed our troops to augment our PNP counterparts, especially in areas considered as hot spots to prevent possible occurrence of crimes and address concerns pertaining to safety and security,” he said.Javines said the Philippine Army under his command is not and will not favor any candidate or political party during the campaign period.“Our support to the Comelec is our commitment to being apolitical but making sure that we are politically aware as well (because) this is part of our mandate to ensure safe and orderly local and national elections,” he added.For its part, the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas said over the weekend that they are closely monitoring the ground situation in four local government units (LGUs) in the province, which have been tagged as “red areas” or areas of grave concern for the upcoming May 2022 national and local elections.The four “red areas” (grave concern) are Escalante City and the towns of Calatrava, Moises Padilla, and Candoni.Comelec Resolution No. 10757 stated that a locality is considered an area of grave concern if there is a combination of the presence of armed insurgents and the LGUs history of election-related violence.PRO-Western Visayas Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Solis said in a statement that so far, these areas are still peaceful as he reiterated that the decision to tag these localities as “red areas” was based on their and the Philippine Army’s security preparations.The deployment of an augmentation force in the said areas will also depend on the everyday ground situation, although so far all four areas are currently peaceful, he said.