Media reports have earlier identified some barangays in the city as areas of concern due to the presence of qualifying factors needed to tag them as election hot spots.

The reports, published and broadcast in various media outlets, enumerated some barangays in the city as "hot spots’’ quoting some police and Comelec officials.

The poll body has already issued guidelines in determining a "hot spot" which the local Comelec office believed is not applicable to the areas cited.

Among the factors cited by the Comelec for an area to be cited as a hot spot are the presence of armed groups, intense political rivalry, and history of election violence.

"None of those factors are present in Valenzuela City so we are surprised by the media reports on the so-called hot spots," a local Comelec official said.

Maki Fontanilla, election assistant of the local Comelec office in the city, said that as far as they are concerned no area in the city has been tagged as a "hot spot.’’ (Willie L. Catapat)