EDITORIAL - Deadly contests

There must be so much at stake in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections or BSKE that people are committing murder to eliminate candidates.

On the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the BSKE on Aug. 28, Alex Repato was shot dead in front of his house in Libon town, Albay. Just hours earlier, Repato had filed his COC for reelection as barangay captain of San Jose. Days before his death, barangay councilor Reliosa Mata of Nagpo also in Libon along with her husband Alfredo were shot dead on their way home.

Over in the Cotabato town of Midsayap, Haron Dimalanes was shot before noon yesterday in a parking area outside the Comelec office, within the town hall compound, where he was set to file his COC for barangay captain of Malingao, in the Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Dimalanes died in a hospital. His companion, Javier Samad Kambiyong, was injured.

Even former barangay officials have been targeted. On July 30 this year, Anwar Ebrahim Salem and his 21-year-old son Anwar Jr. were murdered in an ambush in Matalam, North Cotabato. The elder Salem was the former chairman of Barangay Arakan who served as president of the local Association of Barangay Captains. Police said his murder might not have been connected to the upcoming BSKE because Salem had said he did not intend to run in the elections. But the killing could be related to his former work as a barangay captain.

Police said that from Jan. 1 to July 31 this year, there had been 340 deadly gun attacks in the autonomous region, with over 20 targeting elected government officials. That translates to a daily average of 1.6 murders or homicides.

All elections in this country are tainted with deadly armed violence. But the level of violence tends to be higher in local races, and those for the BSK are no exception. The ease of obtaining guns all over the country along with an ever growing list of unsolved murders emboldens people to resort to assassinations as the ultimate way of eliminating political rivals. With another electoral exercise approaching, authorities should put an end to this impunity.