Philippine human rights commission probes killings tied to 2025 midterm polls

The Philippine human rights commission said Thursday it was investigating the recent shooting deaths of two local officials, and pointed to them as the first-known political-related killings ahead of midterm elections next May. 

The commission, an independent body, said the killings this month could “bring detrimental implications” ahead of the vote, especially in the volatile southern Philippines where an autonomous Muslim region is expected to hold its first-ever polls amid threats of violence.

Norberto Lumbang, a village chief who had announced his candidacy for vice mayor in the 2025 elections, was “gunned down by currently unidentified suspects” on Aug. 11 in Pampanga province north of Manila, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said in a statement.

Nine days before Lumbang was killed, local vice mayor Roldan Benito and his bodyguard were slain in an ambush on Aug. 2 in southern Maguindanao del Sur province.

“Given the upcoming 2025 midterm elections, these acts of violence against officials will also impact the safe environment for every Filipino voter and their right to freely participate in electoral processes,” the commission said in a statement.  

“Not only do these instill fear amongst constituents, but also send a threat amongst local leaders and candidates seeking to serve the public.”

In May 2025, the Philippines will hold elections to fill 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate, more than 300 seats in the House of Representatives, and thousands of local posts ranging from provincial governors to town mayors and councilors. More than 67 million Filipinos are eligible to vote in the polls, according to the Commission on Elections.

However, the country has always had a problem with high gun-related violence in the run-up to and during elections, especially at the local level, where bitter rivalries often end up in shootings that can be fatal. 

The bloodiest election-related killings in the Philippines occurred in November 2009, when 58 people were massacred by members of a political family in the south that was feuding with another clan. Thirty-two of those killed were media workers. 

It is also not uncommon for politicians in the Philippines to keep private armed groups on the payroll to intimidate rivals. 

Most of these groups are from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), where some have known links to militants.

“The preparation for the 2025 elections and the polls itself may ignite further violence and cause widespread human cost as former rebels, political warlords, and traditional elites vie for political power at the national, regional, and local level,” the nonprofit Council for Climate and Conflict Action told BenarNews in January.

BARMM parliamentary elections

For the first time, BARMM voters are set to elect their first parliament next May.

Formed in January 2019, BARMM was established as part of a peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, previously the largest among rebel groups in the southern Philippines.

The region's stability is important for the security of an area where violence is widespread.

In June, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he hoped that the first regional parliamentary elections in BARMM would be peaceful, although he cautioned there could be problems.

“I am confident that elections will be successful. And by successful, I mean that it will be peaceful. It will be accountable. It will be transparent, everything,” Marcos said then during a conference of regional mayors in Manila.