mayoral candidate escaped a pre-dawn ambush in the north of the archipelago on Tuesday. Wilfredo Garcia, the national police operations chief, said 22 politicians had been killed in about 80 election-related incidents since the start of campaigning in February. Thirty four people, including campaign aides, have been killed.
"We're stepping up our security preparations because there's a possibility the number of violent incidents and casualties will further increase," Garcia told reporters at the police headquarters in Manila.
"Our intelligence people were predicting a rise in violence due to intense political rivalry as the actual voting draws near."
Fighting among political clans, competition for lucrative public seats and a trigger-happy culture have made Philippine elections bloody affairs.
Over 140 people were killed in election-related violence in the 2004 presidential race, one of the deadliest since dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in 1986.
Half of the 24-seat Senate, all of the 235-member House of Representatives and nearly 18,000 of local government seats are up for grabs in the May 14 vote.
In the run-up to and during elections, private individuals are barred from carrying firearms but the ban is widely flouted with an estimated 300,000 plus unregistered guns in circulation.
The police have so far only collected 1,700 assorted weapons from nearly 2,000 people caught violating the ban.
Long running Muslim and communist insurgencies further raise the political temperature and Garcia said they were watching out for violence perpetrated by rebels groups, including the communist New People's Army (NPA) and Muslim insurgents.
"We're more worried about the NPA activities because they've been flexing their muscles in the countryside," he said, adding the rebels had been targeting local politicians who declined to pay "permits-to-campaign" fees in rural areas.
Powerful political barons employ private armies and some soldiers and police officers moonlight as drivers and bodyguards, forcing officials to do surprise headcounts of personnel in camps and police offices, particularly in the run-up to elections.
Garcia said there were about 38 private armies, armed with heavy weapons, such as mortars, machineguns and assault rifles, guarding local politicians.
"Some of these groups were better armed than our local police forces," he said, adding soldiers were called in to disarm these illegal armies.
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