Philippine President Gloria Arroyo yesterday ordered the national police to disarm "private armies" controlled by politicians in a bid to curb violence ahead of congressional elections in May.
One of Arroyo's political aides, northern Philippines provincial governor Luis Bersamin, was assassinated outside a Roman Catholic church in Manila last month. Police said the killing was linked to local political rivalries.
That same month, Manila lawmaker Roberto Jaworski was the target of a car bomb attack. He escaped unharmed.
"I am instructing the national police to map out in detail all potential election hotspots, disarm any private armies and help the election commission enforce clean, honest and peaceful polls," Arroyo said in a statement.
The election commission said yesterday it had sought police assistance to keep voters safe during the upcoming polls.
Arroyo also called on opponents to "cut the partisan strife and noise" and join hands in uplifting the lives of the Filipino poor.
The country goes to the polls in May to elect the entire 250-member House of Representatives, half of the 24-seat Senate and thousands of local officials, including governors and mayors.
Political killings are common here, and international rights groups and the Roman Catholic church have expressed concerns over the level of violence.
In the latest incident, two members of the small leftist political party Bayan Muna (People First) were murdered in the province of Sorsogon on Tuesday, according to human rights watchdog Karapatan.
National police chief Director General Oscar Calderon said there were over 90 known "private armies" employed by politicians across the Philippines in the 2004 national polls.
"We have neutralized many of these private armed groups," he said.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
RSS