DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 01 May) - The Gabriela Women’s party list condemned Sunday the killing of Alagad party list regional coordinator Josephine Buca in Davao City in southern Philippines.
Buca was shot dead at dawn Sunday by three motorcycle gunmen in the village of Pampanga.
“As May 14 elections is fast approaching, electoral violence is creeping side by side political killings,” Prof. Luz Ilagan, the group’s national president, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Ilagan said their group is wary that the coming elections will once again display traditional politicians’ resort to violence and fraud to perpetrate into power.
“Josephine Buca is but one of the many victims of electoral violence that would portray how corrupt and rotten the current political system is in the country.“
“This may not be surprising to many of us, but we cannot allow such to continue to prevail as a political alternative for some to achieve power. Thus, our strongest condemnation to this brutal act,” Ilagan said.
Ilagan said that a deeper societal understanding of the root causes of electoral violence could lead to initiatives to prevent and cure this problem in the future.
“For now, the least that we can do is to remain vigilant, raise people’s consciousness about peaceful and clean elections,” she said.
Buca was with her husband, Felix, in their mini-van when the gunmen attacked. Police said the husband tried to fight off the attackers, but was whipped with a pistol on the head.
The trio escaped after the shooting. The motive of the attack is still unknown, except that the woman was a coordinator for the Alagad party list.
The party list was founded in November 1997. Its current representative to Philippine Congress is Rep. Rodante Marcoleta. (Mindanao Examiner)
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