4-DAY RED ALERT status hoisted over Cordillera for May 12 polls

Baguio City, Philippines – Cordillera Region is placed under a four-day red alert status in connection with the May 12 midterm elections from May 11-14.

The status is based on the discussions and recommendations during the inter-agency Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment meeting, placing the region on red alert “to ensure maximum, timely and responsive monitoring, warning, coordination, interoperability, and facilitation of preparedness and response readiness measures” in the region by concerned agencies across all levels.

The Cordillera Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC), through Memorandum 50-2025, activated response clusters to be ready for mobilization at any time and advised the Regional Incident Management Team and Rapid Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis teams to be on standby for possible deployment.

Areas of Concern

Additionally, the memorandum cited nine areas of concern, all in Abra.

The towns of Dolores, Lagangilang, Lagayan, Pidigan, Tayum, and Tineg are placed under the “yellow” category. Localities under such a bracket have reported election-related incidents in the last two elections, with the existence of intense partisan political rivalry, and were previously declared under Comelec control.

Meanwhile, Bangued, Bucay and Pilar are under “orange” category, which means these areas have a combination of or more factors under the “yellow” category, and have serious armed threats posed by communist terror groups (CTGs) or other threat groups.

To recall, 240 police officers were deployed to the province to protect the poll workers and the voters “so that they may freely choose the right leaders.”

These personnel are from the PRO-CAR Regional Headquarters Reactionary Standby Support Force, Regional Support Units, Baguio City Police Office, Benguet Police Provincial Office, and Ifugao Provincial Police Office.

Voters in Cordillera

With Cordillera having a total of 1,442,504 registered voters, some 11,367 personnel of the Department of Education – Cordillera are set to render election duty to the 1,428 voting centers across the region.

In case some teachers may back out, 170 certified police personnel were trained to become special electoral board members, said the Regional Director of PRO-Cordillera, Brig. Gen. David Peredo, in an earlier press conference.