Election-Related Violence is rising as election day nears

The level of election-related violence is rising as election day nears. Not a week passes when a candidate or local official is not killed or shot at. The Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research said last week that more than 90 people had been killed in the run-up to the national elections in May.

The series of killings, beginning with the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last November, has set the stage for possibly the country’s most violent election in recent history. Rommel Baniaol, executive director of the peace research institute, said, “There are just too many private armies, goons for hire and entrepreneurs of violence.” He urged the government to find ways to deter armed goons and ensure that they are not used for election-related purposes.

The present state of affairs indicates that not much has changed since Dec. 4 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the creation of a commission to oversee the dismantling of private armies in Maguindanao and other hot spots. The police themselves are not sure if they can dismantle the private armies. At a Senate hearing in December, PNP Director Andres Caro said the dismantling of the private armies could take one year, which means that they will still be around when elections take place in May.

There are 132 known private armies throughout the country and about 1.1 million loose firearms, most of them in the hands of groups commanded by political warlords. Think of the terrible mayhem and violence that these private armies could sow in the run-up to the elections and during the voting itself.

To be sure, something is being done, but it is being done piecemeal, and on a limited scale. For instance, the police have started to put the private army of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao out of commission. But the number of goons that have been detained and the number of firearms that have been seized are small compared to the reported actual strength of the private army and the reported number of arms that they stashed away in secret places.

In January, the Philippine National Police sent a 75-member Special Action Force to go after members of three partisan armed groups in Masbate, one of 15 provinces identified by the police as “election hot spots.” Eighteen suspected members of two private armies were arrested in police operations in Laguna and Masbate on Jan. 30.

Acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales described Masbate as being “in a state of political calamity.” He said he would talk with political leaders of the province to persuade them to sign an agreement for fair and peaceful elections on May 10. Police data show that 368 people were killed in Masbate in 2008 for political reasons—a big death toll for such a small island! And only 47 cases were brought to court, while the rest were recorded only in police blotters.

This is only Masbate. What about the other hot spots like Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Samar, Nueva Ecija and Abra? What is being done to break up the private armies in these places?

Actually, there was no need to set up a commission to go after the private armies. What was needed was political will and plain and simple law enforcement. Private armies are not allowed by law. For instance, in Maguindanao, according to Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, the civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) had illegally armed themselves.

What is taking the police so long to dismantle these illegally formed and illegally armed private armies? The police cannot move quickly and forcefully against them because most of them enjoy the protection and patronage of Malacañang. An outstanding example is the private army of the Ampatuans which, up to now, is being handled with kid gloves because Ms Arroyo owes the Ampatuans a big political debt.

In the 2004 presidential election, 189 people were killed; in the 2004 polls, 148 were killed. With about two months more to go before the May 10 elections, 90 people have already been killed, and the death toll is rising every week. If the President is really committed to the peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections, she should order now an all-out campaign to dismantle private armies and to confiscate all loose and illegally held firearms.