The Philippine Online Chronicles

With the death toll on election-related violence continuing to soar to alarming proportions, the 2010 national polls could easily become the deadliest in the country's history, an anti-terrorism group warned.

More than 90 people have been killed in a run-up to the May 10 elections, according to the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research.

Included in the list were the 57 victims of the Maguindanao massacre. Of those killed, 30 were local newspaper and television journalists.

The Maguindanao carnage, which rooted from the long-time feud between rival political clans, catapulted the country into the infamous “most dangerous countries in the world for journalists” list commissioned by an independent media group. Now at number one, the Philippines has become a feared destination for media workers, who may find themselves killed in the line of duty, if not kidnapped for ransom.

The institute pointed at the creation of private armies by power-hungry politicians as the cause for the upswing of election violence.

“There are just too many private armies, goons for hire and entrepreneurs of violence,” said the group's Executive Director Rommel Banlaoi.

“The government must urgently find ways to deter armed groups and ensure they are not used for election-related purposes,” he added.

The Ampatuan clan, accused masterminds of the massacre, allegedly had about 100 members of its private army shoot down members of the rival Mangudadatu clan and people included in their motorcade, such as members of the media and legal practitioners. November 23, the date of the massacre, was considered the worst day for journalists worldwide, and 2009 the worst year.

“There are really expectations that this will turn out to be a very bloody elections. People will kill each other because of the interests involved. A politician's salary is not that big, but it's not easy to let go of influence and power, and the huge business interests that come with it. That includes illegal activities,” said Dante Jimenez, member of the presidential commission tasked to dismantle private armies.

Jimenez said the commission knew of at least 117 so-called private armies backed up by politicians across the country, especially in the regions.

Most violent elections

With still two months to go before the elections, political tension is expected to peak up and could easily surpass the 189 recorded killed in the 2004 presidential elections, regarded as the bloodiest in recent election history.

“Based on current pre-election trends we are monitoring, 2010 may see the most violent elections in recent history,” projected Banlaoi.

Meanwhile, Nandy Pacheco of lobby group Gunless Society, said that the culture of violence in the country could be partly attributed to “rampant gun ownership.”

“Buying firearms in the Philippines is like buying candy, it's very easy. And for a certain fee, stores will actually help you process your permit-to-carry license even without checking backgrounds,” she said.

According to police estimates, there are more than 1.2 million unlicensed firearms and 1.8 registered ones, an average of roughly one gun for every three Filipinos.

“The best measure for safety is to really have as few enemies as possible, but there really is no guarantee,” said Nacionalista Party (NP) spokesperson and senatorial bet Gilbert Remulla. “If somebody really wants to kill you, they will find a way to do so.”

Four NP local bets were killed in separate incidents within a month from December 2009 to January 2010.

Violence 'normal' in RP polls

Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility Deputy Director Luis Teodoro said that the culture of violence had been deeply ingrained into the country's political exercise. Considering that acts of violence and fraud had wrought almost every election in the country, it has now become just a “normal” event in the election season.

“Violence too is among the distinguishing features of Philippine elections, together with fraud and vote-buying. Ordinary folk are often caught in the conflicts that erupt among the families and dynasties that contend for supposedly elective posts made lucrative by opportunities for corruption. Election-related violence in the Philippines has historically included harassment, threats of physical harm, kidnapping, murder, bombings, and arson,” Teodoro wrote in his article on Business World.

So "normal" an accompaniment of Philippine elections are incidents of violence and deaths that the Comelec and the Philippine National Police declare elections "peaceful" or "relatively peaceful" solely on the basis of the number of deaths on election day. The nine deaths on election day 1998, for example, qualified the elections of that year for the description "peaceful,” he added.

In 1988, nearly 200 people died in some 300 election-related violence; in the 1992 presidential elections 87 died in 150 recorded incidents; in 1997 over 100 in about 200 incidents; in 1998 80 died in almost 300 incidents; in the 2007 senatorial elections, 80 were hurt and 75 were killed in the months that led to the elections. In 2004, a total of 189 were killed, the highest death toll in election history.

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