Manila, Philippines — The Commission on Elections monitored an upward trend on the recorded incidents of election-related violence in two areas in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
During the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday, February 26, COMELEC Chairperson George Erwin Garcia noted that these recorded increases are monitored within the areas of Cotabato City and Maguindanao del Sur.
Garcia cited reports from provincial offices of Comelec in Mindanao on the spike in cases and incidents of localized election-related violence.
“Kapag malapit na ang eleksyon, lalo’t malapit ang campaign, maliwanag na kasi no’n kung sinong (mananalong) kandidato eh, at nagiging maliwanag kung sinong lumalamang. kalimitan kapag mayroong ganyan, nagkakaroon ng violence. Asahan n’yo lalo kapag pumasok ang 45-day period ng campaign, ‘yan ang pinaka-critical,” Garcia said.
Garcia noted as an example the recent incident of a vice mayor re-electionist in a town in Maguindanao del Sur who was gunned during a public engagement.
This is still aside from the other local reports of election-related violence targeting election candidates.
“Iyon pong pagbaril sa Vice Mayor ng Datu Piang, nakakalungkot po ‘yan, at hindi dapat nang masundan. Ang katotohanan, may mga pailan-ilan din pong ganyan pa sa bandang area ng Mindanao na hindi naire-report sa national media,” he emphasized.
In the incident involving the vice mayoral electionist gunned on Monday, Garcia said that it is easily and clearly considered as a form of election violence.
“Wala pong duda. Wala na pong ifs and buts. Election-related violence po ‘yan. Basta sa kasalukuyan, any violence directed against a candidate and incumbent official is always election-related,” COMELEC said.
Following these incidents, COMELEC is now eyeing to reevaluate and re-classify the areas posing high risk of election-related violence to enforce tighter security measures in these places.
While COMELEC is yet to disclose data on the total number of election related violence in the 2 mentioned areas, majority of the 38 places posed by COMELEC under red alert for high risk of violence during elections were from BARMM.
“Wala po tayong inilalagay pa under COMELEC control sa kasalukyan. wala pa rin naman tayong nakikita, batay sa initial assessment natin, na dapat ilagay sa COMELEC control. Kaya lang, sana maunawaan at maintindihan ng mga politiko dyan, at mga kandidato, hindi po kami magdadalawang-isip na maglagay sa COMELEC control ang isang area para lamang siguruhin na ang mga kababayan nating botante ay maayos na makakaboto at walang takot sa kanilang pagboto,” he added.