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10/04/2010
Barely 21 days before the synchronized barangay and Sangguiniang Kabataan (SK) polls, an election officer in Basilan province was shot dead by unidentified armed men last Saturday night, a ranking police official yesterday said.
Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, director of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-ARMM), identified the victim as Entong Musa, election officer of Tuburan town.
Latag said Musa was in Calle Posporo in Barangay San Rafael in Isabela City, Basilan around 7:30 p.m. when unidentified armed men, aboard a motorcycle, killed him.
A special investigation task group (SITG) was immediately created by Latag to address the shooting incident.
Also, dragnet operations and checkpoints were immediately established to track down the perpetrators.
It was not known, however, whether the shooting was in any way connected to the upcoming barangay and SK elections on Oct. 25.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has intensified security operations, establishing checkpoints throughout the country as part of the government’s efforts to keep the upcoming polls orderly and peaceful.
Government authorities have raised the possibility of an intense campaigning among candidates in the barangay polls.
There are more than 42,000 barangays in the country.
The PNP has set up over a thousand police and military
checkpoints across the country to maintain security for the upcoming barangay and SK elections.
PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr. said these more or less 1,300 checkpoints were set up to further intensify the enforcement of the nationwide gun ban and contain the movement of partisan armed groups.
A total of 146 persons have been arrested so far for violating the gun ban.
Cruz said 131 civilians, four members of the PNP, two members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and nine government employees were apprehended since the police started to implement the gun ban last Sept. 25.
Elections in the country are often marred by violence, with politicians targeting rivals or election officials in order to influence voting.
At least 28 persons were killed this year in violence related to the presidential and congressional elections held in May.
This does not include the 57 persons massacred in Maguindanao province in November 2009, in the country’s worst case of election-related violence in memory. Tribune wires