Filipinos Vote

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32143, 12 November 1969, Page 23

Filipinos Vote

j (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MANILA, Nov. 11. About 10 million Filipinos ! voted for their next President today in an atmosphere made more tense by charges and counter-charges of votebuying and terrorism. Senator Gerardo Roxas, president of the Opposition Liberal Party, reported that he had been shot at by unidentified gunmen early today in Lapiz City in the Southern Philippines. Two or three shots were fired at him and his party in the dark but he escaped unhurt, he said. Police said that first reports indicated generally peaceful voting throughout the 7000-island archipelago where five provinces- have been placed under virtual military control to avert violence. Rival candidates have traded bitter recriminations during the three-month election campaign, but the death toll from political violence has been comparatively low at 25—well below (he record 107 dead and 117 wounded in the 1967 local elections. Twelve people were reported killed in politically-in-spired clashes on the eve of the election. Press reports reaching Manila from the northern Ilocos region said that two heavily armed private armies were on the brink of open war after shooting incidents between followers of two wealthy families—the Singsons and the Crisologos each struggling for power.