EDITORIAL - Unabated violence

The death toll in election violence continued to mount, with a candidate for mayor in Tarlac, barangay chairman Rudy Abella of the Lakas-CMD, the latest fatality. A woman was also wounded by a stray bullet when Abella’s assassins, riding a motorcycle, opened fire on his campaign rally Monday afternoon in San Jose, Tarlac.

Over in Catanduanes, Mayor Abelardo Abundo Sr. of Viga town, who is seeking re-election, survived an ambush also on Monday afternoon. A single shot from a caliber .45 hand gun pierced the window of the mayor’s van and missed the driver, exiting through the windshield.

Abella’s death brings to 36 the number of fatalities in election-related armed attacks since January, the start of the national campaign. Before the attacks in Tarlac and Catanduanes, authorities had counted 58 incidents believed to be election-related. And yet security and election officials are happy to point out that violent incidents in this campaign are lower compared to previous electoral exercises.

Investigators said the likely killers of Abella, a former policeman, are New People’s Army gunmen. Whoever is responsible should be caught and punished. Scores of people are murdered in every election in this country, with few killers apprehended and put behind bars. The failure to bring murderers to justice ensures more violent attacks.

The unabated armed violence also betrays the weakness in the enforcement of the election gun ban. People are using all types of weapons including grenades to kill or harass candidates and their supporters. It has been said often enough that the use of armed force to intimidate or eliminate rivals is the worst way of undermining the vote, and yet not enough is being done to stop the attacks. Curbing violence, starting with the arrest of perpetrators, should be a priority for an administration that wants clean and fair elections. Any assassination should be considered one death too many.