By Nanette Guadalquiver
BACOLOD CITY – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Monday he hopes the fatal Election Day shooting incident in Silay City, Negros Occidental would serve as a lesson not only in the involved barangay, but also in the entire region.
“Sana yung nangyaring kaso diyan sa Silay that would be a learning lesson. Hindi lamang sa barangay kundi sa buong Negros Island Region (NIR) and definitely, may case naman. Therefore, we will handle properly the case and hope we will be able to resolve the case immediately,” Garcia said in a press conference at Seda Capitol Central here on the sidelines of the Comelec’s post-election evaluation in Negros Occidental.
However, he believes the violent incident in Silay City in the last national and local elections should not be the basis of what the Comelec would do in the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
“Bagamat may pangyayari sa Silay sa akin pong palagay, hindi ito dapat maging basehan na kung ano gagawin ng Comelec pagdating ng barangay and SK elections. Nakakalungkot na may ganung klaseng violence,” Garcia said.
Commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr. echoed the Comelec chairman’s statement but said they will not forget the Silay City incident in terms of dealing with vote-buying.
“We’re not going to look back and see what happened in the past as far as our actions in addressing violence is concerned. But as far as vote-buying is concerned, which is an equal initiative of ours, we will not forget what happened in Silay because what happened in Silay happened in a vote-buying context,” he added.
Maceda noted that in Silay City at the time, the citizens there were more vigilant and were watching or guarding against the vote-buying they thought was going to happen.
“It was bittersweet, hindi natuloy ang vote-buying but it was at the cost of the lives of some people, of our countrymen. In order to honor or not to forget their sacrifice, we will make sure that in the BSKE, the area where this happened, we will focus the spotlight on them to make sure hindi na mauulit ang ganyang pangyayari (the incident will not happen again),” he added.
Around 7 a.m. on May 12, police investigation showed that Lantad village chief Arnie Benedicto, along with unidentified men, fired their guns in front of a political headquarters in Purok Ipil-Ipil, Barangay Mambulac, killing two persons and wounding seven others.
The victims were supposedly keeping an eye out for alleged vote-buying in the area, it added.
Benedicto and three others were charged with murder and frustrated murder in court. (PNA)
