EDITORIAL - Gun ban

The election period officially began yesterday. Apart from a prohibition on the suspension of elective officials and the transfer or movement of civil service personnel, a gun ban will be in effect throughout the period lasting until June 8.

On the eve of the start of the election period, Commission on Elections and security officials launched a caravan to inform the public that checkpoints would be set up at random nationwide to enforce the gun ban.

With elections every three years, the public is used to these checkpoints, which will also search for other items such as prohibited drugs. What the public wants to see is a more effective enforcement of gun laws.

Philippine elections have gained notoriety for an unusually high level of often deadly violence. Contract killings have increasingly become the ultimate mode of eliminating election rivals. The impunity owes largely to the failure to catch the triggermen and their political patrons. Any gun ban must go hand in hand with a more aggressive effort to bring murderers to justice. And any candidate implicated in violent acts to eliminate a rival must be permanently barred from holding public office.

Armed groups intimidate candidates and their supporters alike long before the election period. The government must do more to prevent the New People’s Army from extorting “permit-to-campaign fees” from candidates. This extortion undermines a free vote as much as outright poll fraud.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao needs special attention in enforcing the gun ban. Not only because it has been the site of the nation’s worst case of election-related violence, but also because armed thugs may invoke the peace process in using violence to unduly influence the vote. The law must be enforced throughout the country.

It’s time to go beyond lip service in working for peaceful elections. Enforcing a gun ban effectively is just one component in achieving that objective.