EDITORIAL - Because they can

The official campaign period is still several months away, but already political violence appears to be starting. The other night, two men on a motorcycle pulled up in front of the home of Mayor Carlos de la Cruz of Matuguinao town in Samar and shot him once in the chest. As De la Cruz lay dying on the pavement, a grenade was lobbed into his house, seriously wounding his nephew Joel Adel, a government auditor. Police said there were no witnesses and no arrests have been made.

The assassination was just the latest in a string of attacks on the mayor’s family. In 1989, De la Cruz’s father was preparing to run for town mayor when he was gunned down by a member of a paramilitary unit. The killer was caught and sent to prison. In 1998, De la Cruz’s elder brother, who was serving a second term as town mayor, was also killed in an ambush as he was campaigning in an upland village. The murder is unsolved. For the general elections in 2010, the Commission on Elections has included Samar in a list of “immediate areas of concern,” with six towns and cities classified as potential hot spots.

Matuguinao Vice Mayor Aran Boller, who is a political enemy of De la Cruz, denied involvement in the latest killing. Investigators said De la Cruz might have also incurred the ire of certain members of the Armed Forces as he reportedly helped suspected members of the New People’s Army file human rights cases against military officers.

The truth can be known only if the killers are caught and their motive established. Foreign observers have often wondered why there is so much political violence in a land where people are deeply religious and proud of their friendliness and hospitality. Why do Filipinos eliminate their rivals and enemies through murder? One of the reasons has to be because they can. Authorities must change that mindset by catching the murderers and making them pay for their crime.