By MARK JOSEPH UBALDE
THE dust may have settled from what is deemed to be a generally peaceful May 10 elections, but records show the first automated polls also gave rise to a dozen of abductions.
Compared with the 2004 and 2007 elections, when no abductions were recorded, about 12 individuals were kidnapped this year during the election period, said Police Inspector Michael Virtudazo of the Philippine National Police’s elections monitoring center at the National Operations Center.
But he said some of those who were abducted have been released by their captors. He gave no further details.
The 12 abducted were among the 155 casualties recorded by the PNP from Jan. 10 to June 9. Of the total number of casualties, 55 were killed, while 88 were wounded in election-related violence in the country.
The PNP report showed that this year’s conduct of the elections was relatively peaceful and the number of incidents and casualties has significantly gone down.
For this year, only 180 incidents of election0related violence was recorded, 27.81 percent lower than in the 2004 presidential elections (249) and 21.4 percent lower than in the 2007 midterm elections (229).
The number of casualties for the 2010 polls (155) is lower by 66.9 percent compared with 2004 and 47.81 percent compared with 2007.
Virtudazo attributed the improvement to the concerted efforts of the PNP and the Commisison on Elections, including the setting up of more checkpoints in several areas in the country.
The PNP also reduced by more than 3 percent the total number of loose firearms during the election period through a firearm amnesty. Under this program, gun owners were given an opportunity to have their firearms registered, without penalty, in a bid to get a clear audit of firearms in the country.
“We also had peace covenants with the stakeholders and candidates,” Virtudazo said.
Still, the PNP recorded a total of 103 shooting incidents during the election period or almost near the 105 shooting incidents recorded in 2007 and the 111 in 2004.
Explosions, meanwhile, accounted for 25 of the 180 number of election-related violent incidents (ERVIs), higher than the 16 recorded in 2007 but lower than the 28 in 2004.
Incidents of ambush, arson, harassment and ballot snatching comprised the remaining 52 ERVIs.
Blame Comelec for ERVIs
Despite the conduct of a more peaceful election this year, the Consortium on Electoral Reform (CER), a poll watchdog group, earlier said the Comelec was remiss in its duty to contain violence in several elections hotspots area in the country.
At a recent press conference, CER said the Comelec ran out of time to implement Resolution No. 8887, which provides for the creation of special task forces composed of police, military and Comelec officials to contain violence in the whole of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as well as the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Abra, and several other towns.
The resolution was adopted only two days before the May 10 polls.
According to the group, violence was at an all-time high in the ARMM, which could have been avoided “had the Comelec declared the province under its control much earlier.”
In the PNP’s data, there were 37 ERVIs in the ARMM, with 24 casualties.
CER named the Comelec as the least involved in the efforts to curb ERVIs among various stakeholders. (Read more: <a href=”https://verafiles.org/front/watchdog-says-comelec-dilly-dallying-led-to-election-violence/” target=”_blank”>Watchdog says Comelec dilly-dallying contributed to election violence</a>)
When he announced the failure of elections in several towns in Visayas and Mindanao on Election Day, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said poll-related violence for this year seemed to be worse than what the Comelec had seen in the 2004 and 2007 polls. “It’s worse because we are now seeing open hostilities,” he had said.
Jimenez also surmised that hostilities were high because “politicians now know they cannot cheat anymore.”
“But that may be an unfair assessment,” he quickly said.