The government’s anti-insurgency task force is “crazy” if it regards last week’s “rotten and dirty elections” as a measure of the people’s trust, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said last Monday’s elections were so full of anomalies, fraud and violence it is foolish to use it as gauge of the people’s sentiments against progressive candidates and parties.
“In the face of systematic and widespread fraud, only the foolish would say the polls reflect the sentiments of the people. It is even crazier to say it is a measure of the people’s waning trust in progressive parties,” Valbuena said.
Valbuena was reacting to National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) executive director Ernesto C. Torres Jr. who wrote the elections is proof that the public are no longer fooled by the CPP as well as the New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Torres added the “peaceful, honest, intimidation-free election” meant the process are “untouched by “infiltration, armed interference…(and) NPA coercion,” including alleged “partylist proxies.”
The CPP however said the NTF-ELCAC should not be proud of the elections as the Commission on Elections itself could not adequately explain the widespread failure of the automated counting machines and the “questionable upgrading” of the un-audited software used.
“The flagrant and systematic fraud as well as results manipulation were shown by the unbelievable loss of 18 million votes because of over-voting and the double-counting of five million votes,” Valbuena said.
He also cited massive disenfranchisement of de-listed voters and migrant Filipinos that belies claims by the poll body of a record-breaking turnout.
“It is also foolish of the NTF-ELCAC to say the elections are proof of the people’s lack of support to the armed revolution,” Valbuena said. “The NPA does not participate in the elections.”
The CPP said the last polls have failed to present fundamental changes in Philippine society, shown by the same faces who will again dominate Congress.
“The CPP and all revolutionary forces have no illusions in the reactionary elections. The Party is clear in its call: Revolution is the real solution to our social problems,” Valbuena concluded. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
