THE PHILIPPINES: Binding Up the Wounds

Settling scores with bullets rather than ballots is nothing new in the Philippines, where personal vendettas are frequently settled in the heat of campaigning. But from the moment two grenades ripped through a political rally in Manila's Plaza Miranda last August, killing nine bystanders and wounding every one of the Liberal Party's eight senatorial candidates, the off-year election race promised to be one of the bloodiest ever. When the polls closed last week, even the most hardened observers were appalled at the carnage: a record 206 known dead, 217 wounded.

The violence...

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