Newly-appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said Wednesday he aims to have no deaths in the 2025 midterm elections.

Remulla said this after the turnover ceremony with former DILG secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr., who is running for the Senate.

In a briefing, Remulla said: “We will enlist the help of all agencies and government to make it as peaceful as possible. Our aim is zero casualties for 2025.”

He said that when he was Cavite governor, he provided candidates with mobile patrol vehicles that would ensure their safety during elections.

“In Cavite, when I ran the last three times, what I did there was that each and every candidate for mayor always had a mobile patrol vehicle with them. They were separate from their bodyguards. They just monitor them,” he said.

“Maybe we can do the same, but I don't know if mobility is possible,” he added.

Remulla said he said that possible election hotspots are Cagayan, Nueva Ecija, Palawan, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

“But those are premature, just off-the-cuff assessments. But we would get to a definite list in the next few weeks because the filing of the certificates of candidacies just ended yesterday. So we will know more and give a definitive list after that,” he said.

Remulla said they are also investigating the shooting incident in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur where one was reported dead while five were injured.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Erwin Garcia said in an interview that the shooting incident involved two opposing camps of those who were running for mayor. Jaspearl Tan/DMS