EDITORIAL — Election officers in the crosshairs

With the approach of the 2025 midterm elections, candidates and their supporters are not the only ones being gunned down. In less than a week, two election officers have been shot dead in Mindanao. Last Saturday afternoon, John Nico Allan Pandoy, assistant election officer of Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat, was shot dead by still unidentified assailants in President Quirino town.

On Monday afternoon, Mark Orlando Vallecer II, the acting election officer of Nunungan town in Lanao del Norte, was shot multiple times in Barangay Curva in Salvador town in the province. Vallecer, a resident of Cagayan de Oro City, died at the scene.

The Commission on Elections said any attack on its personnel must be considered poll-related. Lamenting the attacks, the Comelec called for protection for its personnel. Law enforcement agencies must do their utmost to catch the perpetrators – gunmen and the masterminds alike. Murdering Comelec personnel cannot be allowed to go unpunished.

Failure to bring killers to justice inevitably breeds impunity. It’s bad enough that too many politicians in this country think murder is the ultimate weapon for eliminating rivals. The belief that politicians can get away with murder gave the country the Maguindanao massacre on Nov. 23, 2009 and the mass murder on March 4 last year that left then Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo and nine others dead at his residential compound in Pamplona town.

Today, with the official campaign period still months away, killings believed related to the 2025 elections are already being reported. Last week in General Santos City, a candidate for governor of Sarangani was shot by a gunman on a motorcycle. Businessman Gladden Selidio Lim had just emerged from a Christian worship service when the gunman came up to him and opened fire. Lim was lucky to survive after being hit multiple times.

Politicians even in towns with tiny voting populations have resorted to murder to eliminate rivals or permanently silence critics. It’s not surprising that election officers will also be targeted. Before attacks on election officers become pervasive, authorities should catch the assailants and bring them to justice. Such attacks aim to instill fear among those who are tasked to supervise the vote, which could undermine the free exercise of the people’s will in a democracy.