Singaporeans sooooo under-appreciate Singapore.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/10-dead-in-philippine/2769130.html
MANILA: At least 10 people died across the Philippines in
election day violence on Monday (May 9), as gunmen attacked
polling stations, ambushed vehicles and stole vote counting
machines, police said.
However authorities described the violence as isolated incidents
and that the overall conduct of the elections - which will see tens
of millions of people cast their votes for president and 18,000
other positions - was peaceful.
In the worst attack, seven people were shot dead in an ambush
before dawn in Rosario, a town just outside of Manila known for
political violence, Chief Inspector Jonathan del Rosario, spokesman
for a national police election monitoring task force, told
AFP.
In Guindulungan, a small impoverished town in the strife-torn
southern Philippine province of Maguindanao, where
warlord-politicians have their own private armies, a voter was
shot dead inside a polling station, police said.
A bystander was also killed when a grenade was launched at a market
in Cotabato, a major city in the south that neighbours Maguindanao,
as people were casting their votes, police said.
In the nearby town of Sultan Kudarat, a stronghold of the nation's
biggest Muslim rebel group, 20 men forced their way into a voting
centre and carted away voting machines, police chief Senior
Inspector Esmael Madin said.
In the northern province of Abra, infamous for politicians
killing each other, armed supporters of rival mayoral candidates
shot at each other, leaving one person dead and two wounded,
provincial police spokeswoman Marcy Grace Marron told AFP by
telephone.
Police arrested two men and two women with guns after the fighting
in the mountainous town of Lagayan, 350 kilometres (217 miles)
north of Manila, Marron added.
Still, elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the violence
would not impact the result, noting they had taken place in known
"hot spots" where extra security forces were in place.
Military spokesman Colonel Noel Detoyato also voiced little
alarm.
"There are isolated incidents. (They) had minimal effect on the
conduct of the elections," he told AFP.
Fifteen people had been confirmed killed in pre-election violence
since the start of the year, according to the national police poll
monitoring taskforce.
Political violence is a longstanding problem in the Philippines,
fuelled by lax gun laws, corrupt security forces and political
dynasties that often have their private armies or security
forces.
Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of southern Davao city, is
the favourite to win the presidential elections after campaigning
on a platform of killing thousands of criminals that critics say
will incite more violence.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/10-dead-in-philippine/2769130.html
