By Manny Mogato

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

MANILA, May 8 (Reuters) - His opponents fear him inside the ring, but Philippine boxing hero Manny ''Pacman'' Pacquiao doesn't leave his home on the southern island of Mindanao without five armed bodyguards.

Pacquiao is contesting elections to the House of Representatives next week. So far, nearly 100 people have been killed, more than half of them politicians or candidates, in election-related violence.

''I'm not afraid,'' Pacquiao told a local television station at his campaign headquarters in General Santos City, saying he had received death threats. ''I'm not accusing anybody, but these threats came when I entered politics.'' Pacquiao, challenging a deeply entrenched political family in his hometown, said he was told there was a 100 million peso contract to assassinate him and prevent him from winning the congressional race in South Cotabato province.

National police chief Oscar Calderon has said the level of violence remained low compared to previous contests even if the shootings were expected to accelerate as election day on May 14 draws near.

So far, 95 people have been killed since campaigning started in January, including two gunned down last month when police acting as bodyguards for rival politicians exchanged fire at a road block in a northern province.

In the 2004 presidential elections, 189 people were killed and 279 wounded.

''Elections in the Philippines have always been violent,'' said Benjamin Lim, political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, adding mid-term polls were more bloody due to intense rivalry among local politicians.

''The stakes are much higher in local contests. If they lose, they will lose everything -- prestige, money and connections -- because political offices in the Philippines have been a source of good income for our politicians.'' WINNER TAKES ALL There are meant to be limits on the number of bodyguards and guns but they are rarely enforced, particularly in rural provinces, where a cavalcade of blacked-out SUVs and a private army are symbols of power.

Political barons pay off local police, and candidates who shoot their way to the top usually get away with it.

Some soldiers and police officers moonlight as drivers and bodyguards, forcing officials to do surprise headcounts in camps and barracks.

A trigger-happy culture and long-running Muslim and communist insurgencies add to the bloodshed.

On the southern island of Jolo, an infamous hideout for Islamic militants, four rebels were killed today in a gun battle with government soldiers.

Elsewhere, the communist New People's Army extorts fees for safe access to its territory, popularly known as the PTC or ''permit to campaign''.

About 2,000 assorted weapons have been seized from private armies and citizens but that is a fraction of the estimated 300,000 plus unlicensed firearms circulating the archipelago.

''We've already removed their guns and yet these killings still happen. You tell me what else do you want us to do?'' Benjamin Abalos, chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the state agency supervising polling, said recently.

But the public distrusts the Comelec, whose officials are suspected of receiving kickbacks to manipulate counting. Many leftwing activists also accuse the military and police of campaigning against anti-government candidates.

Lim said the state needed to step in and stop the shootings and ambushes.

''We can't just sit and watch as the bodies continue to pile up.'' Reuters RJ RS1218

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