With dozens of bodies littering the campaign trail, millions of Filipinos vote on Monday in crucial legislative elections seen as a test of the legitimacy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government.
An hour before campaigning officially ended at midnight on Saturday, communist rebels shot dead an administration congressman and a companion while three others were killed in a grenade attack, pushing the campaign violence death toll to 58. Congressman Marcial Punzalan and a cousin had just stepped out of a car during a rally in Tiaong, south of Manila, when six assassins gunned them down, police said.
On southern Mindanao island, an unidentified attacker tossed a grenade at the headquarters of a candidate for mayor, killing three people and wounding 17.
The spate of killings in a country where political rivalries approach tribal fierceness has prompted the armed forces and the police to declare a nationwide alert.
"Your police and the armed forces are on maximum vigilance," national police chief General Leandro Mendoza said.
Arroyo said on Saturday she had received intelligence reports that a nine-man liquidation squad had also targeted her family for assassination to coincide with the May Day attack on the presidential palace by thousands of supporters of detained former leader Joseph Estrada -- MANILA (Reuters)
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