BACOLOD CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Negros Island Region (NIR) has been ordered to focus in Negros Oriental, which has a history of election-related violence, Lionel Marcos Castillano, Comelec-NIR regional director, said on Thursday.
Castillano, with assistant regional director Dindo Maglasang, met with local election officers in Negros Occidental on Thursday in Bacolod City.
He also said that this is despite the law creating the NIR saying that the regional office of the Comelec will be located in Negros Occidental because it is bigger in terms of number of voters.
Castillano said the poll agency's national office passed a resolution placing the regional office in Dumaguete City.
"We have two offices, one in Dumaguete City and another in Bacolod City, to better serve the public," said Castillano.
He said that Bacolod City Comelec office will be headed by regional election attorney Cindy Ballesteros.
Castillano added that he will be in the Comelec NIR office in Bacolod twice a month to check the situation there.
Castillano said that based on the resolution issued by the Comelec en banc, the NIR Comelec regional office would be "preferably in Dumaguete City."
He also said that he was ordered by Comelec Chairman George Garcia to give special attention to Negros Oriental, because of peace and security concerns, in the previous elections.
Gov. Roel Degamo and nine others were all killed inside his residential compound in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, on March 4, 2023.
Negros Oriental's 3rd Dstrict Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. was linked to the assassination of Degamo.
But in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections last year in Negros Oriental, it was the most peaceful elections in the province, without any untoward election-related violence, said Castillano.
There are 2,992,818 registered voters in the Negros Island Region as of July 15 this year, Comelec-NIR data showed.
As of the July 15 Election Registration Board hearing result, Negros Occidental logged 1,954,679 registered voters, Negros Oriental with 959,228 and Siquijor with 78,911.
Kabankalan eyes to host 12 national offices
Meanwhile, Kabankalan City is ready to host 12 national agencies.
"Kabankalan City is ready and excited to host the different regional offices of national agencies," said Mayor Benjie Miranda on Friday.
Miranda said 12 national agencies have already visited his office and requested office space for their regional office under the NIR.
The city is the center of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, he said.
He said the government — Central Philippines State University (CPSU) — has allocated 500 hectares of land for the regional center.
The mayor added that the regional police training center as well as offices of the Departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Bureau of Investigation and the National Food Authority have expressed interest in putting up their regional offices inside the campus of CPSU in Barangay Camingawan, Kabankalan City.
Miranda said the city government is willing to help national agencies such as road paving for access roads, even security and water connection if the agencies ask from the city.
"We want them to start functioning even for just a short period of time," Miranda also said.
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