Sánchez: Wild and wooly days

THE wild and wooly days are here again. Or more correctly, the Wild, Wild West. This is the year of living dangerously. We don’t have opposing gunslingers, trying to blast each other’s brains at high noon.

People get killed the same, though. In Negros Occidental, assassins killed Luís Mondia Jr., near the Jaro Cathedral. Mondia, who was running for mayor of Pulupandan in the May polls against incumbent Magdaleno Peña, was gunned down on Feb. 17.

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The rub-out is just a statistic in the growing number of killings since the political massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last year. The coming days bode more mayhem, which experts described as the country’s most violent election in recent history.

Warlord-politicians continue to defy a government crackdown and run their own mini-armies to murder their political rivals. Body counts have exceeded 90 in the run-up to the national elections in May, as political wannabes contest positions from the presidency down to town councilor.

“There are just too many private armies, goons for hire and entrepreneurs of violence,” Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research. “The government must urgently find ways to deter armed groups and ensure they are not used for election-related purposes.”

Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzáles says there are 132 private militias in the country with a combined strength of 10,000 men that politicians use to intimidate rivals and voters.

Political tensions have yet to peak. Banlaoi said the Philippines might surpass the 189 people killed in the last presidential elections, which was regarded as the most violent in recent memory.

Of course, the supposed crackdown against private armies is highly suspect. In fact, the killings alarmed an international coalition of human rights groups and labor unions.

Amnesty International, the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines, the International Federation of Journalists and the National Union of Journalists issued an appeal on the 100th day after the Maguindanao massacre.

“The Maguindanao massacre casts a heavy shadow over Arroyo’s presidency,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty International. “Arroyo is the one who authorized private militias, and she can abolish them with the stroke of her pen.”

The four organizations blamed the proliferation of private armies to Gloria Arroyo’s Executive Order 546, which they described as “toxic,” that legalized private militias to operate since 2006.

Anti-crime fighter Dante Jiménez, a member of a presidential commission created to dismantle private armies following the Maguindanao massacre, echoed the same sentiments.

“There are really expectations that this will turn out to be a very bloody election,” Jiménez said.

“People will kill each other because of interests involved. A politician’s salary is not that big, but it’s not easy to let go of influence and power and the huge business interests that come with it. “That includes illegal activities.”

Jiménez said the commission knew of at least 117 so-called private armies being run by politicians across the country.

It’s a frightening year for all of us. Impunity seems to be the name of the game. Could we escape the May 10 national elections unscathed? Can law enforcers assure the voters of protection from private armies and assassins?

I’m holding my breath. The feeling is surreal, like watching a thriller suspense movie in 3-D. But the guns and bullets whizzing past our heads are anything but visual effects.

Please email comments to bqsanc@yahoo.com