CEBU CITY – The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) and the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 will be testing its readiness in securing the May 2010 elections during the mock polls set on February 6 here in coordination with the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Comelec Assistant Regional Director Veronico Petalcorin said the readiness of the PNP in securing the national and local elections in May will be tested in the mock elections to be supervised by the poll body on February 6.

Although details of the mock elections have not been fully revealed, Petalcorin said the dry-run will focus on security preparedness and worst case scenarios, as well as the effectiveness of the security measures being planned out for the election in May.

Meanwhile, Comelec and the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) have put in the watch list nine towns and two cities in the region due to intense political rivalry and past incidents of trouble particularly during election season.

In Cebu, Bogo City and the four towns of Cordova in Mactan Island, as well as the northern towns of Sta. Fe, Carmen and San Francisco fall under category one, which means that these places have documented intense political rivalry and past election-related violence incidents in the past.

Chief Supt. Lani-O Nerez, Police Director for Central Visayas said the classification of towns and cities in aforesaid watch list will be subject to daily assessment.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) used to describe potential trouble spots as “areas of concern” and “areas of immediate concern.” However, the term has been changed to “election watch list areas” or EWAS for the 2010 polls.

Three categories have been placed under EWAS, that is, areas with intense political rivalry and previous election-related incidents, areas where communist rebels are present and areas where a private army exists.

Rene Ray Buac, Comelec Regional Director for Central Visayas, said EWAS was used in lieu of “election hotspots” because the term hotspots makes a situation appear worse than it is.