About three months to the 2025 midterm elections, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Philippine Army (PA) disclosed that they are 80 percent prepared with their election contingency plan that ensures a successful and peaceful conduct of the polls in the newly created Negros Island Region (NIR).

In a meeting of the Provincial Joint Security Control Center morning on February 18, 2025 in Bacolod City, the regional director of COMELEC-NIR stated that they are approaching completion of the election contingency plan.

One of the foci of the contingency plan is the possible transfer of voting centers in the event of an explosive eruption of Mount Kanlaon and the imminent upgrade of the alert level.

“We have finished contingency plans for other areas. Na-identify na namin kun saan ita-transfer yung mga voting center,’ said Atty. Lionel Marco Castellano, COMELEC-NIR director.

According to COMELEC-NIR, it is important that classrooms as voting centers are ready before May 12, 2025. This requires the decision of the Local Government Unit of La Castellana to have the evacuees transferred to Himamaylan City where over 200 tents have been pitched in an area dubbed “Tent City.”  

COMELEC-NIR pointed out that the proposed two barangays in La Castellana as voting centers are not adequate to meet the need or requirement.  

“Ang gusto lang talaga ni mayor is pwede within lang sila sa La Castellana. May na-identify na dalawang barangay. But ang sabi naman ni OCD [Office of Civil Defense], kung yun lang dalawang barangay baka kulangin,” Castillano added.

Further, the transfer of voting centers need the approval of the COMELEC en banc.

Meanwhile, COMELEC does not have a final list yet of the possible areas of concern in the Province of Negros Occidental.

COMELEC said that a place in Negros Occidental may possibly be classified as an area of concern for incidents of disorder brought about by insurgency problems, as affirmed by the police.

“Hindi pa sinabi yung mismong area but yun nga tinitingnan pa natin. Baka ma-preempt ang kinakasa nating validation,” Colonel Rainero de Chavez, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office director, said.