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Philippines holds vote for `barangay' chiefs

More than a million candidates took part in the Philippines' latest rambunctious exercise in democracy amid tight security yesterday, seeking nuts-and-bolts local posts that keep the country running.

The 120,000-strong police force was on full alert to guard against fraud and violence, with at least 23 candidates or followers killed since the election season began last month, police Director-General Avelino Razon Jr said.

Voting also was marred by flooding, landslides and a school fire.

The candidates were vying for nearly 672,000 posts in 42,000 villages, known as barangay.

Elected to three-year terms, they fill grassroots posts in the country of 89 million people that range from overseeing garbage collection to weeding out suspected insurgents in their neighborhoods.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lined up to vote in her hometown in Pampanga province, waving and smiling to a small crowd.

Her ousted predecessor, Joseph Estrada, whom she pardoned last week after his plunder conviction, planned to vote in a suburban Manila school for the first time since regaining his freedom.

Razon said troops were helping police secure the balloting in about 4,500 villages considered security hotspots due to the presence of communist or Muslim guerrillas or a history of intense political rivalries.

Midway through the voting, Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento reported no major violence or disruption.

"We hear of vote-buying here and there, but it's not a major trend," Sarmiento said.

Before dawn, fire broke out in a school building that was to be used as a voting center in northern Nueva Ecija province, although the cause was unclear.

Elections officials proceeded with voting in nearby buildings, Sarmiento said.

Flooding and landslides set off by heavy rains in the Bicol region, southeast of Manila, might prevent a few hundred villagers from casting their votes.

In Manila's suburbs, radio DZBB reported that a candidate was held by police after pointing his gun at a resident.

Police were concerned that communist guerrillas could use force to ensure the victory of sympathetic candidates, Razon said.

"Our intelligence assessment indicates a massive effort ... to field sympathetic candidates in the elections in order for the movement to regain lost ground," Razon said in a statement on Sunday.

Ahead of the voting, communist guerrillas abducted a candidate for village leader in Basey town in the central province of Samar. Elizabeth Gutierrez, who was kidnapped on Wednesday, was running against a relative of a rebel commander, police said.

A former rebel aspiring to become a village head was killed by suspected communist gunmen last Monday in Villareal town, also in Samar, police said.

Arroyo has repeatedly said she wants to end the communist rebellion by 2010, when her term ends.

The 6,200-strong rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state for 39 years.
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