One thing I had to admit that in Philippine election the count of vote matter and also body count. However, some of my Philippine business associate and friends rather optimistic about this years elections, comment that situation had vastly improved that is the body count in the ongoing campaign is still relatively quite low : 27 people killed and 37 wounded in confirmed election-related attacks from Jan. 10 to April 25. The death toll does not include the 57 who were massacred in Maguindanao on Nov. 23 last year, over a month before the official start of the campaign period. The figure also does not include 61 other incidents since the start of the campaign, which investigators believe were not election-related. They tole me they had seen far worst during the the 2004 general elections, 189 people were killed, 41 of them candidates, in 249 election-related attacks. In the 2007 mid term elections, 229 poll-related violent incidents were recorded, with 128 fatalities including 37 candidates. Compared to those figures — the typical death toll in every electoral exercise in this country — 27 is low. Like it or not ? the change is for the better and government agency like Comelec have certainly step up their duty in their effort to confiscation loose firearms and dismantling of politicians’ private armies. Since Jan. 10, authorities have seized 1,998 firearms, 261 explosive devices, and 819 air guns and gun replicas from 2,288 violators of the election gun ban, including 215 government personnel. Some of the members of private armies are exempted from the gun ban, being members of the police, military and civilian militia which can be a cause of concern. It can a lapse in the process as failing to confiscate all the loose firearms or dismantle private armed groups, authorities can still discourage election violence by catching the perpetrators of the attacks. As in any crime, failure of the state to catch and punish perpetrators breeds impunity. Security officials cannot congratulate themselves for a relatively low death toll in the elections. Even a single murder is one death too many — especially if the killer gets away with the crime. Another grey area is hired gun in elections it have often been marred by violence with some politicians using hired gunmen and private armies to intimidate rivals and voters. In the worst incident, 57 people were massacred in the southern province of Maguindanao on November 23. The son of the then-governor of Maguindanao has been charged over the killings, which authorities allege he organised to prevent a rival challenging him for a provincial post. In some past incident after the campaign,the violence continues even after the votes have been cast. In one incident in Batangas, a schoolhouse where votes were being tallied by public school teachers and poll personnel was torched by a group that included policemen, allegedly acting on orders of a local politician. Comparing Philippine politics to Singapore the latter seems like child plays. Sometimes we need to stand back and look at the whole system to understand how things work through the eye of Fillipiano that poltical career is no child play survival the fittest and the ruthless in almost every election campaign. Moreover, There is a lot of misinformation out there that is causing more harm to this country and the tourism industry than any concentrated campaign by the NPA, MILF, Abu Sayyaf or any body else for that matter. Yes, there are places in this fascinating country that are just plain lethal for foreigners or even Filipino to visit; but you can’t get there! Not without a pass from the authorities and a military escort. Yes, there has been kidnap gangs snatching people off the streets but they don’t randomly target foreign tourists. This is a business and these ‘businessmen’ target people they know have rich relatives to pay the ransoms, most often Chinese-Filipino families who are least likely to involve the police, sames goes for people in the politics and you can be ensure that to embark in the career of Politics it is no child play in Philippine!
Some of the data source from Manila News, Comelec Website
