MANILA, 1 May 2004 — Unidentified gunmen killed a leftist political leader and seriously wounded his wife in the eastern Philippine town of Pagbilao, raising the death toll in this year’s election campaign to 83.
The attack also raised the number of people injured in 137 election-related violence to 117, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday.
Roger Perez and his wife Tina, regional leaders of the Bayan Muna party, were shot late Thursday near party headquarters in Pagbilao in Quezon province, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of Manila, Bayan Muna and the military said.
Perez died on the spot while his wife, a member of the municipal council, was in critical condition, military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said.
House Rep. Satur Ocampo, the Bayan Muna president, said the attackers weren’t identified but that the attacks appeared to be related to recent allegations by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales that six left-wing political parties have been channeling funds to the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“There is a continuing campaign against party-list groups, such as Bayan Muna, in relation to the accusation that they are front organizations of communist rebels,” he said. He noted that another leftist activist, a provincial coordinator for the Anak Pawis party, was killed in a similar shooting in Calapan city on Mindoro Island earlier this week.
The rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state for 35 years. The political parties have denied the allegation and Ocampo has filed a libel suit against Gonzales. “The military operations appear to be the ‘go’ signal for the continuation of the political repression against our parties,” Ocampo said.
Bayan Muna claims it has lost more than 40 members since 2001, when the party won, for the first time, three seats in the House of Representatives.
Lucero and national police spokesman Senior Supt. Joel Goltiao denied the government was behind the attacks.
“We respect ... what they are doing. They are legal organizations,” Lucero said, appealing to Bayan Muna to wait for the results of an investigation.
Goltiao said most of the victims in violence that erupted since campaigning began in mid-December were not members of leftist parties. Ermita, on the other hand, said NPA rebels were behind about 15 percent of the incidents and the rest were due to political rivalries.
Communist rebels have been charging fees to candidates and their supporters in exchange for campaigning unmolested in areas where the rebels are active. Candidates who refuse to pay have been attacked or abducted.
The violence ahead of the May 10 elections has already surpassed the total of the last general elections in 1998 during which 64 people were killed and 157 others wounded.
Supreme Court Rules
Still on the election, the Supreme Court yesterday nullified a lower court’s ruling that banned religious groups from endorsing candidates in elections.
“Indeed the assailed decision was rendered in clear violation of the Constitution because it made no findings of facts and final disposition. Hence it is void and deemed legally inexistent,” the court said.
The high court said the Manila regional trial court’s ruling that said church endorsements “violated the separation of Church and State” was only “part of an opinion.”
“It does not conclusively declare the rights (or obligations) of the parties of the petition. Neither does it grant any — much less the proper — relief under the circumstances, as required of a dispositive portion,” the court added in its decision.
The court also said petitioner Social Justice Society (SJS) “merely speculated” when it said public officials would be “beholden” to religious leaders who endorsed them.
The court stepped into the case after Brother Mike Z. Velarde of the Catholic-based El Shaddai appealed the Manila court’s ruling.
Foreign Observers
With the election day getting closer, American observers have begun arriving in the Philippines as part of a contingent of the US-based Consortium for Elections and Political Processes Strenghtening (CEPPS), a partner of the United States Agency for International Development.
US Embassy Charge d’ Affaires Joseph Mussomeli said about 20 American observers from various non-government organizations started to arrive in Manila on Monday.
“The CEPPS experts will provide technical advise and assistance to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and to other key players,” the embassy said in a statement.
“They will observe the vote on election date, help local institutions to monitor the canvassing process and will make recommendations as appropriate,” it added.
Mussomeli said aside from the CEPPS observers, the embassy would also be fielding about 80 staff members to observe the elections. “What we will do is look at the elections from a technical standpoint and see if there are things that can be done better,” he said.
Mussomeli said the US does not expect widespread fraud during the elections, compared to the 1986 snap polls when American observers monitored various irregularities. “In 1986, there was a genuine concern for massive fraud and coercion and it was very important for the entire international community to be here to ensure or at least help the Filipino people in their fight to retain democracy,” he said. (Input from agencies)
Massive cheating in the 1986 polls led to a four-day popular revolt that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Aside from the American observers, diplomats from Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Britain, New Zealand, Portugal and Sweden have also applied for accreditation to observe the elections.
More than 40 million Filipinos are eligible to vote for a president, vice president, 12 senators, more than 200 members of the House of Representatives and about 17,000 local officials on May 10.
The elections are considered the be one of the most hotly contested in recent history.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is vying to keep her post and has taken the lead in the presidential race, overtaking her strongest rival, movie star Fernando Poe Junior.
Arroyo expressed support for efforts by the Church and other groups to ensure that the elections would be clean, honest, peaceful and credible.
She also assured the public that her political party and allies would not resort to cheating or use of force to get votes.
“Should there be attempts at cheating, it will never come from us,” she said. “We are confident of victory and we will not tarnish democracy in any manner.” (Input from Associated Press, Inquirer News Service & AFP)
