Local Polls Reflect the True State of Philippine Elections

MANILA - The campaign for local posts has just begun. And the fanfare surrounding the presidential and senatorial campaigns are nothing compared to that of local campaigns. Even before the local campaign period had officially begun on March 26, every secondary and side street is already full of campaign posters, banners, and banderitas (small banners tied across streets) not only of candidates for national posts but also that of local candidates, minus the position they are running for. With the start of the local campaign period, walls and posts in secondary and side streets would surely thicken with all these campaign paraphernalia, with that of one candidate pasted over another's over and over again. But beneath the clutter lies the violent nature of local elections.

Local elections are historically fought out with the use of guns, goons, and gold. Thus, the discovery not only of powerful weapons but election paraphernalia as well during raids at the residences of the Ampatuan clan, during the aftermath of the Maguindanao massacre, is not unexpected. In fact, the Maguindanao massacre itself is not surprising nor is it an isolated event. It just raised the ante in terms of the level of violence that is to be expected in the coming elections. Killings of local candidates and their ward leaders have already begun all over the country. And this is expected to escalate with the start of the official local campaign period.

After the Maguindanao massacre, Malacañang made a show of moving to dismantle private armies by creating a commission headed by retired Justice Monina Arevalo-Zeñarosa. But even the commission and the Philippine National Police admit that, a little over a month before the May 2010 elections, they have hardly made a dent in dismantling private armies.

Why?

Because the so-called private armies are not so private after all. First, every powerful political cum landlord clan has one. It is regularly used to suppress attempts by landless peasants to claim the land they till. These even include members of the local police, as the Maguindanao massacre has shown.

And these "private armies" are not only condoned but even supported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The Arroyo government and the AFP admitted that the so-called private army of the Ampatuan clan that carried out the massacre of 57 journalists, relatives of the rival Mangungudatu clan, and other civilians are units of the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO). The government also admitted that the high-powered weapons discovered in the cache of the Ampatuan clan have markings of the AFP.