The midterm polls will happen next year, but this early, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has declared La Union as an election hotspot.
DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo Año made the recommendation on Wednesday following the murder of Sudipen town Mayor Alexander Buquing, his driver-bodyguard, and a police officer.
Año said authorities are looking into politics as the motive behind the killing.
“Yes, I will recommend,” Año said. “Itong kay Mayor Buquing, ang nakikita ng PNP [Philippine National Police] ay politics. But we will go where the evidence will lead us.”
“Napansin natin with the killing of Buquing na parang katulad ito ng hotspots natin like Abra, like Mindanao so we have to wait for the assessment of Comelec [Commission on Elections] and the PNP. Accordingly, we will address it through deployment of additional security persons,” he added.
Buquing is the 11th mayor to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte was elected as the country’s president on June 30, 2016.
But Año said that not all mayors killed under the Duterte administration were drug-related.
“Itong labing-isa na ‘to halos ang drugs-related lamang dito ay ‘yung kay Parojinog at ‘yung sa kay Espinosa… Ang karamihan dito ay politics at personal motive,” he said.
“Slowly naman may naso-solve ang pulis natin, ‘yung kay Mayor Ferdinand Bote solved na ‘yun, nafile-an na ng kaso ’yung culprits,” he added.
Buquing, driver Boni Depdepen, and police protection officer Police Officer 2 Rolando Juanbe were the two others who died in the shooting incident.
Buquing’s wife, Vice Mayor Wendy Joy Buquing, survived the incident with minor injuries.
Police theorized that a gun-for-hire syndicate was behind the crime, noting that these syndicates are active especially when election season comes near.