Two more politicians in the Philippines have been assassinated amid rising violence ahead of national elections in May, police said Thursday. The killings on Wednesday saw one victim gunned down outside a church in the central Philippines and the other, a member of the ruling coalition, shot in a southern province that is notorious for its ruthless political culture.
Both men were candidates for mayors in small towns, and bring the number of people reported to have been killed in the run-up to the elections to at least 65. In one of the incidents, two motorcycle-riding gunmen fired repeatedly at Luis Mondia, 55, outside a Catholic church in the central city of Jaro, local police investigator Horizon Villanueva said.
After sustaining gunshot wounds to his neck and shoulder, Mondia - who was planning to run for mayor of Pulupundan - died hours later in hospital, Villanueva told reporters. In the other killing, gunmen killed Errol Sinsuat, a member of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling party, as he drove his motorcycle through Cotabato city, local chief of police Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane said. A policeman who responded to the shooting was also fired upon and wounded, Dangane said.
Sinsuat, 38, had been planning to run in the national elections for mayor of Blah Sinsuat, just outside Cotabato City in Maguindanao province. His killing was likely related to politics, Dangane said. Sinsuat's killing took place roughly 20 kilometres (12 miles) from a rural area of Maguindanao where 57 people were slaughtered on November 23, allegedly by the private army of a powerful local clan, the Ampatuans.
Andal Ampatuan Jnr allegedly led the massacre to prevent a rival from challenging him in the May elections for the post of Maguindanao governor. Ampatuan Jnr and 197 others, including his father and other members of his family, have been charged with the massacre, which is the country's worst known case of political violence.
Elections in the Philippines, have long been plagued by violence, with politicians resorting to gunmen to eliminate rivals and intimidate voters. More than one million unlicensed firearms are believed to be on the streets of the Philippines, on top of the roughly 1.8 million legal ones, according to police estimates.
Philippine authorities imposed a gun ban on January 10 in a bid to contain the pre-election violence, apparently with little effect. "Based on pre-election trends we are monitoring, 2010 may be the most violent elections in recent history," Rommel Banalaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told AFP. Under the terms of the ban, which will last until June 9, civilians with permits to carry guns are forbidden from taking them out of their homes. Politicians are not allowed to have armed bodyguards, a common practice normally.