There have been killings lately and attempts to do so among elective government officials in certain parts of the country, and this is quite an alarming fact since, though the elections are over, such incidents still happen.
It is easy to cite politics as the motive behind these gruesome acts, the reason being that no other reasons are grave enough to provoke murder. Had these officials been linked to illegal drugs, we could blame the drug war for it—but this is still a policy that was espoused by the past regime, not by the present one. Business rivalry is also too shallow for a killing resort, and so is infidelity to a love partner if ever there is.
Politics, then, is the most potential reason, given the kind of political maneuverings that we have had in this country. Ours is a dirty politics, as has been proven time and again, and one attribute of which employs the filthy tactic of killing opponents. But this doesn’t mean personal encounters of political rivals drawing their pistols to shoot each other like what happens in wild West movies. They use men for hire, of course.
This brings us to the dire need to dismantle political armed groups otherwise known as private armies. Some powerful politicians who aim to perpetuate themselves in power are said to be maintaining these, not just for protection, but also to advance their ambitions and, most alarmingly, to annihilate their potential rivals. This calls for an iron fist and political will from the national government, which we don’t seem to have at the moment.
For as long as private armies, gunmen for hire, and other such elements exist, the likelihood of politically-motivated killings will prevail in this country and even turn rampant during the election seasons when politicos clash for the electorates’ support.
