AT LEAST a dozen people were killed and another dozen injured on Election Day today in what police declare as the “most peaceful elections so far” but in what a Commission on Elections official considers as more violent than the country’s past elections.
Task Force Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections (Task Force HOPE) of the Armed Forces recorded 37 cases of election-related violence nationwide on Monday, including six shooting incidents, 13 episodes of harassment, five encounters, five cases of voters intimation, three mauling incidents and two bomb explosions. The task force also monitored the confiscation of a firearm and a ballot snatching incident.
The Philippine National Police and the AFP have been on full red alert for the elections.
Monday’s killings began hours before the country’s 76,000 polling precincts opened at 7 a.m.
An encounter between police and an armed group in R.T. Lim town in Zamboanga Sibugay at 2 a.m. left three members of the group dead. The group, believed to be allied with mayoral candidate Rogelio Gomez, tried to force its way through a police checkpoint and fired on law enforcers that were manning it.
An hour later in Antique province on Panay island, two supporters of mayoral candidate Gil Bandoja died and four others were wounded in an ambush reportedly by members of the local police in Tibiao town. A survivor said their cars were blocked by PNP patrol cars, forcing them to slow down before they were fired upon.
The other deaths occurred while voting was ongoing. Cavite Rep. Plaridel Abaya and his children were aboard a vehicle in the afternoon when they were shot at in Bacoor town. Abaya’s chief of staff and his two security guards were the recorded casualties.
In Maguindanao, where the country’s worst pre-election violence took place last Nov. 23, supporters of two vice mayoral candidates exchanged gunfire in a voting center in a barangay in North Kabuntalan, Maguindanao, leaving two dead and disrupting voting.
Task Force Hope also reported an ongoing clash between lawless elements town and three grenade explosions in Datu Piang and warned journalists to stay away from the place.
In Datu Unsay, Ampatuan in Maguindanao, a group of men opened fire at a polling place in a public market. The polling precincts closed as police and military troops arrived to secure the place, backed up by two tanks.
In Lanao del Sur, another ARMM province, two persons lining up to vote at an elementary school died when armed men fired at voters at a poll precinct in Tugaya. The exchange of gunfire in several barangays in the town sent voters rushing back to their homes without casting their votes. Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and ballots were also not delivered to polling places in Calangas town, also in Lanao del Sur, because of sporadic firing from an opposition party over clustering issues.
Election monitors reported that improvised bombs exploded near the gymnasium of the Mindanao State University campus in Marawi City, a black Isuzu highlander blew up near an elementary school where people were voting, and another improvised bomb exploded in Barangay Saduc.
The Commission on Elections, meanwhile, received reports that hostilities in Albarka and Sumisip towns in Basilan halted the conduct of elections. In Sumisip, government troops were attacked by unidentified men, leaving one soldier dead.
Despite the string of incidents, Supt. Bienvenido Latag, ARMM police regional director, said, “The AFP is on top of the situation.”
The ARMM has been placed under AFP control. Of the 82 election-related violence incidents recorded by the Philippine National Police nationwide from Jan. 10, when the election period began, to May 9, 11 of them occurred in ARMM.
Col. Ricardo Nepomucemo of Task Force HOPE also told a press briefing at Camp Cream today that this year’s elections was the “most peaceful so far.”
The PNP reported 276 incidents of election-related violence during the 150-day election period in 2007 and 312 in 2004. This year’s election period will end on June 9.
But Comelec spokesmen James Jimenez told journalists at the Philippine International Convention Center, where the poll body will be canvassing the official results for the senatorial race, “There’s more violence now than in previous elections. It’s worse because we are now seeing open hostilities.”
Jimenez said hostilities might be high this time since “politicians now know they cannot cheat anymore.” But he added, “That may be an unfair assessment.”
Nongovernment election monitors had earlier warned that violence might escalate in some parts of the country after the polls such as Sulu and Maguindanao.
The country’s top hotspots include the ARMM provinces, Lanao del Norte, Abra, Masbate, Nueva Ecija and Samar, among others.
The Consortium on Electoral Reform said last week a significant number of the acts of poll violence were “planned and targeted.” It pointed to the ambuscades, assassinations and bomb attacks that have been carried out since the start of the election period.
It also said, “While the number of incidents is relatively lower as compared to the same period in the 2007 elections, what is bothering is the significant number of fatalities (and) there are victims killed in almost every incident.”