An election officer in Danao City has asked the central office of the Commission on Elections for a provision of a service firearm for security reasons following the killing of a top Comelec official in Manila.
Lawyer Enerio Ocariza wrote Comelec acting chairman Resurreccion Borra saying he was alarmed by the death of lawyer Alioden Dalaig, the head of the Comelec’s legal department who was shot dead in Manila on November 10.
“If these perpetrators easily killed no less than the director of the law department of Comelec, how much more these people could on us (election officers),” said Ocariza in his letter to Borra.
Saying that their weapons against such threat are only an impartial and honest work, Ocariza said it cannot be denied that somehow they still need a “sort of protection against possible assailants.”
“Nowadays, looses firearms are in the hands of notorious persons who serve as hired killers by these corrupt politicians.”
A church-backed poll watchdog has urged a thorough inquiry into the killing of Dalaig amid widespread condemnation of the murder. The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting said there should be an “impartial, professional investigation.”
PPCRV national chairperson Henrietta De Villa has condemned the killing as “deplorable.”
“Any death diminishes us. PPCRV is devastated that elections and death are now synonymous—instant death of many people and slow death of democracy,” De Villa said. – Gerome M. Dalipe/LPM