More politicians killed this election period compared to 2001 mid-term and 2004 Presidential elections

By Ronron
May 15, 2007

More politicians and candidates were killed this election period compared to those in the 2001 mid-term and 2004 Presidential polls, records of the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed.

As of 9am yesterday, 60 politicians and candidates were already killed since the start of the election period on January 14, much higher than the 41 reported in 2004 and the 21 in 2001.

In particular, the records show that 49 politicians were killed this election period while those killed in 2004 were only 32, and none in the 2001 polls.

As to the candidates, 11 were killed this year, nine in 2004, and 21 in 2001.

Political analyst Benito Lim, who teaches at the Ateneo Manila de University, acknowledged that it is already inherent among local politicians to resort to violence just to stay in power.

Lim explained that violence has become a culture in local politics “because the stakes are high.”

“It’s a lucrative job, economically, for them to remain in power,” he said of local politicians and candidates.

“And since they have no other job, they want to keep that job for life or they pass it on to their children,” he added.

With this “attitude and culture among local politicians,” Lim said the government, through the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) should exert more effort to “prevent violence.”

Sadly, the Comelec, he said, failed to carry out this mandate this election period. Rather, it came out with decisions that fueled more violence, thus the higher number of fatalities this year than in the past elections among local politicians and candidates.

“There is no serious attempt of the Comelec to clean the list of voters… The reason probably is so they can manipulate the results of the election in favor of the party they are siding,” Lim said.

“And they don’t bring the election paraphernalia on time. This causes disorder,” he went on.

Some election officers also ask money from candidates to ensure the latter’s victory, proof of which is the arrest of the Comelec Provincial Director in Negros island very recently.

The PNP, Lim said, also failed to be totally non-partisan as mandated as there were reports that some were campaigning against the opposition candidates.

Lim even hit the PNP for insisting that this election is “relatively peaceful,” citing lesser election-related violent incidents (ERVI’s) this year compared to previous election periods.

“Their meaning of a successful elections is lesser number of deaths… But there should be absolutely no death or at least a negligible number,” Lim said.

Sought for its own assessment on the rising number of politicians and candidates killed, PNP Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration Deputy Director Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said: “We are studying that.”

However, he added: “But let’s look at the bigger picture. There are fewer casualties this election period compared to the previous elections.”

Based on the PNP record, a total of 217 ERVI’s were already recorded this year since January 14 until yesterday morning, compared to the 249 ERVI’s in 2004, and 269 ERVI’s in 2001.

A total of 126 persons were killed and 149 others were wounded this year, fewer, according to the PNP, than the 189 killed and 279 wounded in 2004. A total of 111 were killed and 253 were wounded in the 2001 polls.

Although this year’s statistics may still increase since the election period will end on June 13, officials in the PNP expressed confidence that it will not outnumber the 2004 and 2001 figures./DMS