Cebu Daily News First Posted 08:21:00 02/01/2010 Filed Under: Elections, Election Violence, Politics
THE shooting incidents involving supporters of two rival political groups in Lapu-Lapu City isn't sufficient reason to place the area under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), a local elections official said yesterday.
“I don't think so. From the police investigations, we can see that the two shooting incidents were all isolated. The police will investigate and make recommendations to us and we will either approve or disapprove it),” said Lapu-Lapu City election officer Ferdinand Gujilde.
Gujilde said last month's shooting incident that resulted in the death of an opposition party supporter was reportedly caused by a “love triangle”.
He said last week's shooting on Pangan-an Island was motivated by a personal grudge between assailant and victim.
The shooting incidents, he said, could be classified as politically motivated if the victims had the resources and the standing to enable the candidates to win the elections.
Other factors to be included in placing an area under Comelec control is the occurrence of election-related violence and the presence of private armies.
Both conditions don't exist in Lapu-Lapu, Gujilde said.
A non-government organization officer asked the police to assign more personnel on Pangan-an Island following last Friday's shooting incident there.
Manny Ramirez, project manager of Learning Tools for Global School, said their operations in helping the school on Pangan-an Island were hampered because of the incident.
Ramirez is also the head of the Friends of Cebu City Library and Lapu-Lapu city. /Dale G. Israel
