EDITORIAL – Escalating violence

On the day that dawn Masses started, a lawmaker was murdered in a church compound. Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin was gunned down together with his bodyguard, Special Police Officer 1 Adelfo Ortega, as they were leaving the Mt. Carmel church in New Manila, Quezon City Saturday night. The congressman’s driver and a boy were wounded in the attack.

Investigators are still trying to establish the motive for the ambush, but speculation is inevitably focusing on politics. Bersamin hailed from a part of the country with a long history of using violence to achieve political ends. Reports said he was preparing to run for provincial governor in May 2007.

The campaign for the midterm elections is still a few months away, and yet violence involving politicians is starting to escalate. Bersamin’s murder comes on the heels of Pasig City Rep. Robert "Dodot" Jaworski’s narrow escape from death after his van exploded in what police suspect was a bomb attack. Jaworski said he smelled politics in the incident but fell short of pointing an accusing finger at anyone.

Bersamin’s murder was carried out in a daring manner, late in the afternoon in a crowded churchyard at the end of a wedding ceremony. The gunman who didn’t even bother to conceal his face reportedly walked up to Bersamin, killing Ortega first before shooting the congressman several times with a .45-caliber pistol. The gunman then hopped onto a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice and fled.

The nation will see more brazen killings unless the government moves resolutely to solve Bersamin’s murder. This means catching not just the triggerman and his accomplice but also the person who ordered the hit. As in the killings of journalists and leftist militants, seeing people literally getting away with murder emboldens other crooks.

There will also be more killings until the government gets serious about curbing the proliferation of loose firearms especially with the approach of the midterm elections. But the government cannot crack down even on the sale of toys that look like exact replicas of real guns — toys that muggers and other criminals can use to scare victims. With weak law enforcement, violence is sure to escalate in the coming months.