EDITORIAL - Clamp the lid on political violence

There are at least two takes on the gun attack at a pharmacy owned by a candidate for Cebu City councilor under Team Rama. One is that it was politically motivated and the owner/candidate cannot be faulted for thinking that way, especially since in a previous election, a similar attack was again aimed at her business interests.

But the police think otherwise. Investigators who responded to the incident say no evidence has yet been recovered that would suggest politics as a motive in the attack. This is understandable, however. The police would not want violent incidents taking place so close to the election to be misconstrued as having to do with politics.

Violence related to the election is the last thing anybody would want. Even the slightest perception that the election would be violent will have very serious repercussions on the conduct of the political exercise itself. It can discourage people from voting. Worse, it could instigate more violence, a situation far from remote considering how firearms have proliferated in the civilian population.

Regardless of whether the incident involving the shooting up of a pharmacy owned by a political candidate turns out to be politically motivated or not, the police and other security forces are nevertheless expected to stay on their toes to ensure that the coming election will at least be "tolerably" peaceful and that any untoward incidents will not be sufficient to affect the credibility of the results.

Perhaps, no election in recent times has been more emotional and divisive as this one, fueled in large part by the increasingly larger role the social media has played in the campaign. A lot of the passions that have characterized the campaign has been sparked in large part by the unbridled comments unleashed in cyberspace and it is hoped the rancor does not spill over into the physical world.

That is why it is very important for the police and other peace-keeping forces to be on top of the situation. It is necessary for their peace-keeping mandate to be uncompromised and unhampered by whatever influence politics may wield. The race for the presidency has been too heatedly waged already among the candidates themselves. It would be terrible if their supporters join in as well outside cyberspace.

And then there is the local aspect of the election, of which the pharmacy incident is a sad and sorry element. If it is any consolation, at least no one was hurt in the attack. But nobody needs to get killed or hurt for political violence to be considered a blackeye for Asia's freest democracy. Just the fact that Asia's freest democracy is predominantly Catholic as well makes political violence a big no-no that more often than we care also gets to be a big yes-yes.