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More than 100,000 police and military troops are being deployed across the Philippines to provide security ahead of elections due in May.

The aim is to enforce a ban on all unlicensed weapons and encourage private militias to disband. The move comes in the wake of the mass killing of 57 people in the southern province of Maguindanao.

The incident was widely believed to have been related to the forthcoming elections in May. It is a measure of the history of election-related violence in the Philippines that these additional security measures are deemed necessary. It is also a very high-profile effort to try to reassure a nervous and sceptical public that the authorities are determined to act. In part, the heightened security is a response to the massacre in Maguindanao last November.

The main suspect, Andal Ampatuan Junior, is a member of a politically powerful family that has long provided strong support for President Gloria Arroyo. Mr Ampatuan stands accused of killing relatives of a rival political clan who were on their way to register a candidate for May's elections.

BBC / VOV