At least 76 towns across the country are in the initial list of election hotspots of the Philippine National Police (PNP), a police spokesman said yesterday, adding that the figure does not include yet the entire Maguindanao province.

Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina said the 76 towns are located in the provinces of Abra, Nueva Ecija, Masbate, Western Samar, and Lanao del Norte which were initially placed under the PNP’s watch list because of the election-related violence recorded during the 2004 and 2007 national polls.

The PNP list will be turned over to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for appropriate action and should the poll body concur with the police, it will put under its control such areas through the help of government security forces.

The province of Maguindanao -- where the election-related massacre of 57 journalists, lawyers and relatives and supporters of Buluan town Vice Mayor Esmail Mangudadatu occurred on Nov. 23 -- was not yet included along with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)-infested island provinces of Basilan and Sulu.

The PNP leadership, however, said Maguindanao will definitely be recommended to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as among the election hotspots as a result of the grisly killings last month.

Continuing assessment is also being conducted in Lanao del Sur, the 9th province under the PNP’s election hotspot list.

“Areas fall under this classification due to the presence of threat groups, history of intense political rivalry, recorded cases of election-related violent incidents (ERVI) in previous elections and existence of active partisan armed groups,” said Espina.

“Areas are categorized according to threat level for purposes of strategic security planning and deployment of troops and resources for election security operations,” he added.

Espina said 13 of the 27 municipalities of Abra are included in their watchlist due to 18 ERVIs recorded in 2004 and 17 ERVIs in 2007 wherein 28 people were killed and 12 were wounded. Also listed are 13 out of 32 towns in Nueva Ecija.

“Historical record of violent confrontations as a result of intense political rivalry among contending parties in the 2004 and 2007 elections placed 90 percent of the 21 towns of Masbate under the watch list,” said Espina.

A total of 65 percent of the 25 municipalities of Western Samar are also listed in the May 2009 hotspot list, according to Espina while 65 percent of the 22 towns and a city in Lanao del Norte are also included.

While Abra has been known for the presence of local politicians’ armed goons, PNP records revealed that eight partisan armed groups in the province have already been busted.

The same records, however, revealed that police are yet to dismantle an active partisan armed group with 37 members operating in the 4th district of Western Samar that is believed behind several unsolved crime incidents in the province.

While there are only four major classifications in including an area in the PNP hotspot list, Espina said proliferation of loose firearms is also another factor.

PNP records revealed that there are a total of 122,700 loose firearms in the nine provinces, the highest is in Maguindanao with an estimated 33,000 loose firearms according to the intelligence report as of May this year.

Espina said there are an estimated 6,700 loose firearms in Nueva Ecija while some 3,000 loose firearms are estimated to be proliferating in Masbate.