COTABATO A grenade attack on a political gathering left two people dead and 12 wounded in the same area of the Philippines where 57 people were massacred last year, police said Thursday.
The attack on a meeting at a resort in the southern province of Maguindanao late Wednesday was linked to next month's national elections, said provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses.
A mayoral and vice-mayoral candidate were meeting with supporters when two men aboard a motorcycle threw a grenade over the resort fence where it exploded. The candidates were unharmed, said Lineses.
The attack came despite tight security that has been imposed on Maguindanao after 57 people were massacred there in November allegedly by gunmen working for the Ampatuans, a powerful political clan.
The November massacre was carried out allegedly to keep a rival from running against a member of the Ampatuan family, and the province remains under a state of emergency.
However the latest attack is not believed to be linked to the November massacre. Elections in the Philippines are usually accompanied by a surge in violence as politicians use force to intimidate or eliminate their rivals.
The national police said it had recorded a total of 53 cases of election-related violence with 26 deaths and 25 wounded since January, excluding the victims from the new grenade blast.
The party of presidential front-runner Benigno Aquino criticised the national police for not doing enough to stop a rash of attacks on its followers.
Twelve members of Aquino's Liberal Party have been murdered since January in the south, a party statement said.
“The killings must stop now,” vice-presidential candidate Mar Roxas said in the statement. - AFP
