Wednesday, January 03, 2007 Mayor: Poll violence 'corny'
THIS year's elections will be "monotonous" as far as Davao city is concerned, Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said, agreeing with earlier statements made by Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos.
Duterte pointed out that Davao city has no history of election-related violence and that Dabawenyos find these "corny."
The mayor issued this statement as reaction to the questions that surfaced after a cluster head of Hugpong sa Katawhang Lungsod was reported killed in Panabo. Hugpong is the political party of the mayor.
But Duterte clarified that the person was from Panabo and the incident happened outside his jurisdiction.
"Politically motivated killings happen in other places because contenders want to win. In Davao City, the residents will just say 'yuck.' They will cringe in distaste at the thought of such," Duterte said.
But Duterte admitted that the coming elections will be highly competitive as many are really determined to win. But, he said, this comes naturally in politics.
He assured the public that Davao City is not prone to election-related violence and that any such incident would be dealt with accordingly. (GLP)
