Jobs to kill for

Accept the poll results, all candidates in the village and youth council elections were urged by various officials.

Acceptance should go without saying – but not in this country, where all sorts of underhanded election tactics are the norm rather than the exception.

This is also a country where there are no losers in elections, only winners and those who got cheated.

After the violence leading up to the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 30, with at least 19 BSKE-related murders officially confirmed by the Commission on Elections (a “relatively peaceful” vote, as described by the Comelec), security agencies must now contend with post-proclamation killings.

On Nov. 1, a winning candidate for barangay councilor in Poblacion 3, in Cotabato’s Midsayap town, was shot dead near the barangay center.

We’re not just sore losers, we’re armed and dangerous losers.

While police said the number of election-related incidents this year was higher than in the 2018 BSKE, the level of armed violence was reportedly lower. Maybe because the three-year tenure of the new set of officials has been abbreviated to just two by that party pooper Supreme Court, which ended the multiple term extensions that Congress and Malacañang kept giving to their grassroots political leaders.

Surely two years as a barangay official isn’t worth the prospect of at least two decades in prison for eliminating your rival through murder.

Maybe lawmakers should go the other way; instead of a term extension for their vote-buying operators at the grassroots, they can make the two-year term permanent for the BSKE. It could disincentivize murder, and might put more pressure on barangay officials eyeing reelection to serve their constituencies better.

OK… this seems like wishful thinking.

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Deadly violence is always much worse in local election contests in this country than in the national races. Probably because the local fights can be deeply personal. Police said that kagawad in Midsayap town was murdered by his own cousin.

Even clan wars spill over into politics, and the violence can be vicious. Clans, of course, aren’t the only ones that resort to murder.

The worst case of political and election-related violence in this country sprung from rivalry between former allies – the Ampatuans and Mangudadatus – over the governor’s post in one of the poorest provinces, Maguindanao.

Even if the province is poor, we all know that the level of economic prosperity anywhere in this country doesn’t matter to those hungry for political power. A province or town may be among the poorest in the country, and the majority of the constituents may be impoverished. But as long as the sitting politicians themselves are wealthy beyond what could be possible if they weren’t the political kingpins in their turf, all is well with the world.

When politics serves as the basis for family wealth, power is seen by the clan as a birthright that must be passed on to the next generations. Staying in power forever then becomes an existential objective – and murder can become a tool for its attainment.

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Barangay officials have no regular salary. But as I have often pointed out, they are authorized to raise their own funds from activities and services enumerated in the Local Government Code. Depending on the barangay budget, allowances, honoraria and discretionary funds allocated to the village officials can be considerable.

The Department of Budget and Management has authorized a maximum monthly honoraria of P33,843 for barangay captains in first class and special cities; P23,176 for kagawad and P21,211 for SK member.

For the least developed or sixth class municipalities, the maximum honoraria allowed are P21,998 for the captain, P15,064 for kagawad and P13,787 for SK member. But in the majority of the barangays, which are low-income, a kagawad can get an honorarium of only P5,900 to P8,900 a month. The captain gets from P7,900 to P12,700.

Village officials are entitled to free tuition for themselves and some of their dependents, insurance coverage, free hospitalization, Christmas bonus, civil service eligibility plus an edge in appointments to government positions for which they are qualified after their barangay term ends.

Are these jobs worth resorting to murder?

Killing the competition – literally – is encouraged by the weakness of the rule of law and the belief that one can get away with murder in this country.

In the latest Rule of Law Index drawn up by the World Justice Project, the Philippines ranked 100th among 142 countries – a three-point drop from the previous year’s 97th among 140 countries. The latest ranking placed the Philippines at 13th place among 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific, ahead of only Myanmar and Cambodia.

The weakness of the rule of law is compounded by the ease of obtaining guns. Even Chinese crime thugs operating behind the shield of POGOs have guns. And politicians themselves own the biggest arsenals, to equip their private armies. Most of these politicians’ guns are unlicensed – the better to use and discard after a murder.

People shake their heads in disbelief over reports of rivals killing each other even over kagawad positions.

But for those with more modest and lower-paying jobs, or with no regular employment – and there were many such candidates in this BSKE – an elective position that carries with it some form of influence over life in the community is a job to die for. Or kill for.