EDITORIAL - Post-election murders
From Aug. 28 to Oct. 30, the Commission on Elections counted 19 confirmed killings related to the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. To no one’s surprise, armed attacks related to the BSKE have continued long after the Comelec finished counting the votes.
Last Monday afternoon, a barangay councilwoman or kagawad in Pasay City was shot dead right inside the barangay hall. The next day, a barangay captain in Panabo City, Davao del Norte and a kagawad in Antipas, Cotabato were gunned down.
All three were new village officials; their killers are at large. Their murders came on the heels of the Nov. 1 attack on a barangay councilor in Midsayap, Cotabato, who was shot dead reportedly by his cousin near the barangay hall.
The Comelec has urged the Philippine National Police to protect both winners and losers in the BSKE. With thousands of candidates in the village and youth council races, however, this is a tall order for the PNP.
What is needed is to improve the peace and order situation in general, for candidates and voters alike. Checkpoints can be sustained, especially in areas identified as election hotspots. Gun control measures have always needed tightening, not only through checkpoints but also through closer monitoring of seaports and coastal communities through which guns, drugs and other contraband are brought in, with political warlords themselves among the smugglers in some areas.
Motorcycles continue to be the getaway vehicles of choice of gunmen all over the country. Rules may be drawn up and measures implemented to facilitate the identification of riders. The ease of concealing identities while wearing a motorcycle helmet and jacket facilitate the commission of crimes.
The best deterrent to criminality is the certainty that perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice. The nation can’t accept deadly violence as the norm in all electoral exercises. Midterm elections and the next BSKE are set in 2025. If authorities want to bring down the level of violence in those elections, those behind the killings related to this year’s BSKE must be caught and punished.
