A Manila Court denied a motion by government prosecutors to jail journalist and former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo anew, saying Ocampo’s bail bond remains in effect until proceedings on a murder charge against him has been terminated.
In an order dated Monday, August 19,
Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch
32 said she finds no reason to issue a recommitment order against Ocampo.
“Plainly, the grant of bail to accused-movant
Ocampo is not subject to any other condition, except that its effectivity is
until the termination of the proceedings of this case,” Bunyi-Medina’s order
reads.
The Court is hearing the murder charge against Ocampo for allegedly ordering the mass murder of at least 15 individuals alleged by the military as victims of a supposed purge by the Communist Party of the Philippines in the mid-1980s.
Ocampo has repeatedly said that the charge was laughable, explaining that he was still in jail in 1984 when government witnesses alleged that he gave the order in an underground meeting in Leyte.
In a motion to the court last June
12, government prosecutors argued Ocampo abused his provisional liberty when he
was involved in the alleged kidnapping of Lumad children who fled their homes
in Talaingod, Davao del Norte last November.
Ocampo, along with Act Teachers’ Party Representative France Castro, were charged with violations of Republic Act No. 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 before Branch 2 of the Tagum City RTC.
“This renders him unworthy of the
temporary liberty granted to him,” the prosecutors said.
Ocampo and Castro, however, said they
did not go to Talaingod to kidnap the children but to show their support to the
Lumad who fled Sitio Nasilaban, Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod after elements
of the 56th Infantry Battallion of the Philippine Army and the Alamara
paramilitary band forcibly closed down their community school.
Through his Public Interest Law
Center (PILC) lawyers, Ocampo said they were allowed to post bail after their
arrest and the case is in a pre-trial stage at the Tagum City Regional Trial
Court.
“The prosecution maliciously
insinuates that accused Ocampo is already guilty of kidnapping and child abuse,
while he is entitled to a presumption of innocence,” the PILC said in their
oppostion to the government prosecutors’ move.
Judge Bunyi-Medina agreed with
Ocampo’s lawyers, saying “[A]s admitted by the prosecution, said case is still
pending before Branch 2 of the [RTC] of Tagum City, Davao del Norte, nor was it
shown that a warrant of arrest was issued against him.”
The PILC said the motion by the
government prosecutors is “politically motivated
and legally baseless.”
“Ka Satur has
weathered through some 12 cases – none of which he has been convicted in, all
false and trumped-up,” the PILC said. # (Raymund
B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/LODIS-2.jpg15302040Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-08-19 18:45:272019-08-19 19:49:46Court denies gov’t move to jail Satur anew
Brandon Lee, the journalist and human
rights activist shot and seriously injured by unidentified assailants in front
of his home in Lagawe, Ifugao Tuesday night is being surveiled at the Baguio
General Hospital, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) said.
“Security guards at the hospital alerted us that a certain George
Malidow of the [AFP], introducing himself as from Camp Henry Allen in Baguio, was asking for details about
Brandon’s case,” the CHRA said in its alert.
“This was brought to our attention
as this is not regular protocol for the AFP to be monitoring and investigating
such case,” the group added.
Camp Allen is a military camp in
the heart of the Cordilleran capital that once served as the site of the
Philippine Military Academy.
Hospitals, meanwhile, are designated
neutral zones by human rights statutes and local and international humanitarian
organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent.
Lee was brought to Baguio last night
from Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya after being initially brought to a local hospital
in Lagawe after the attack.
The CHRA said Lee is conscious and
able to talk but is in need of type O+ blood donations.
He suffered four gunshot wounds on his torso, reports said.
Lee is a United States citizen, married to a Filipino and a permanent resident of the Philippines. They have a seven-year old daughter.
Red-tagging victim
Lee, a red-tagging victim of the AFP
since 2015, is the Ifugao provincial correspondent of the Baguio-based media outfit
Northern Dispatch.
He is also a paralegal of the CHRA, the Ifugao Peasant Movement
and the Justice and Peace Advocates of Ifugao, all of which have reported
threats and harassments by members of the 54th Infantry Battalion of the
Philippine Army for weeks prior to the attack.
The soldiers gathered data by interrogating and intimidating the
organizations’ members and staff, the CHRA reported after Lee’s shooting.
The Philippine Army team was headed by a certain 1Lt Karol
Jay R. Mendoza while its Civil-Military Operations head is a certain Lt.Col.
Narciso B. Nabulneg, Jr. who both invoked President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive
Order 70 in their interrogations, the group added.
Duterte’s EO 70 issued last December created a task force to
combat insurgency that human rights organizations blame for the killing of
activists across the country.
Condemnations
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna Reps. Eufemia Cullamat and Carlos Isagani
Zarate today strongly condemned the attack against Lee,
who they describe as “one of the noted volunteers of the Ifugao Peasant
Movement and well-loved by the peasant and indigenous peoples in the
Cordillera.”
“It seems like that the dark army and mad dogs of
the government that are responsible for the killings of thousands in the
anti-drug campaign are now after activists, people’s lawyers, community
organizers, and other human rights workers,” Zarate said in a statement.
“Brandon Lee’s assasination attempt is revealing of the type
of government that we have when it threatens death to people like him, who
serves the poor peasant and indigenous peoples so selflessly. We should not
allow this to continue. This madness must stop and should be investigated
promptly, and the perpetrators be brought to justice,” the House Deputy
Minority Leader said.
The Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) for its part said it holds State security forces that the Duterte administration has let loose in the Cordillera region – the 54th IBPA, the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and the Northern Luzon Command—acountable for the attack.
‘We urgently call on the people to voice out your concern and call for justice for Brandon and other human rights violations victims. The attacks on human rights defenders must end,” the CPA said.
The group announced it will hold a social media rally on Twitter and Facebook for Lee at five to eight o’clock Wednesday evening using the hashtags #Justice4BrandonLee and #StoptheAttacks. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The member of the 18th Congress who probably has the
least formal education took to the floor of the House of Representatives last
Monday, July 29, visibly nervous but delivered the most powerful speech of the
night nonetheless.
Neophyte representative Eufemia Cullamat of Bayan Muna
delivered her first privileged speech, vowed to defend the Lumad schools that
are under attack by government forces, and called for the respect of the
indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination over their ancestral domains.
Cullamat apologized for what she feared may be
mispronounced words, but she soon hit her stride and passionately delivered her
seven-page speech.
“I admit I am one of the very few members in this
hall who may have only finished elementary education and finds it difficult to
understand English words or read them. I am living proof of the government’s
failure to provide education for everyone because the nearest school from where
I live is 20 kilometers away,” Cullamat said in Filipino.
A member of the Manobo tribe from the mountains of
Barangay Diatogon in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, Ka Femia railed against the
attacks on Lumad schools she helped build. She recalled how she witnessed the
murder of her cousin Dionel Campos, her uncle Datu Jovillo Sinzo, and
Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development’s
(Alcadev’s) executive director Emerito Samarca on September 1, 2015.
“I was shaking, prone on the ground, while the
soldiers and the paramilitary peppered us non-stop with bullets. I clearly saw
how Dionel was ordered to lie on the ground by a paramilitary. I clearly saw
how his brain splattered when he was shot,” Cullamat said.
“I embraced Dionel’s children as they wailed over
their father’s lifeless and violated body.
I saw one of our elders, Datu Bello, bludgeoned several times that
caused fractures on his legs and arms,” Cullamat added.
She also narrated how she saw Alcadev’s principal Samarca lying in one of the classrooms, his lifeless body bearing signs of torture. “His body was riddled with bullets, full of cigarette burns and his throat slashed,” she narrated.
Cullamat said the massacre was one incident that shows
how the government regards the Lumad’s struggle to establish indigenous
peoples’ schools.
“What pains me, Mr. Speaker, is that these
horrible attacks are still being perpetrated in our schools, against our
teachers, against our children. Not only do they destroy our schools, they file
trumped-up charges against our teachers and supporters; they also imprison
them,” she said.
“They disrespect, they burn the schools we
sacrifice so much to put up,” she added, her voice breaking in pent-up
rage.
Cullamat said that for many decades, the national
minority had been deprived of basic social services, including education. She
said they have been victimized by their lack of education, as well as the
difficulty in obtaining them on the flatlands.
But the massacre goes beyond the government’s false
accusations that the Lumad schools are disguised New People’s Army (NPA)
training and recruitment grounds, Ka Femia said.
“That massacre was clearly meant to intimidate us
into allowing coal mining in our ancestral lands. As a paramilitary trooper
once said, ‘it would not have happened if we allowed mining,'” she said.
But the Lumad of Diatogon have long decided to defend their land from
environmental plunder, a decision that has cost them many lives and the existence
of their beloved schools.
Cullamat said 15 coal mining, as well as palm oil
plantation companies, are salivating over 200,000 hectares inside Lumad-Manobo
communities in the Andap Valley Complex in Surigao del Sur.
Still, Cullamat said, they will fight for their
schools. She said they persevered in establishing them and succeeded through
blood, sweat, and tears and with the help of the church and non-government
organizations. The schools taught them to read, write, and count.
“Because of these schools, our children are being
educated in ways that are respectful of our traditions, culture, and our need
to improve our lives, especially through agriculture so that we may prosper
while we protect our ancestral domains for future generations,” she
explained.
Cullamat also cited that many graduates of their Lumad
schools have gone on to earn college degrees and have gone back to their
communities as teachers, agriculturists, health workers and organizers. They
have also become trusted advisers to their tribal leaders.
She added that her children studied in the Lumad
schools and taught her and other adults in their communities to read and
understand Filipino. “My dear colleagues, I now stand before you, speaking
in Filipino, because of these Lumad schools,” she said.
The success of the schools in educating the Lumad have
made them targets of harassments and attacks, the neophyte legislator said. She
cited the recent decision of the Department of Education to suspend the permits
of 55 Salugpongan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Learning Center schools in Davao upon the
prodding of national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon.
“Esperon accuses the Salugpungan schools of training Lumad children to become New People’s Army guerrillas and how to shoot or dismantle guns, as he accuses other schools run by the Clans (Center for Lumad Advocacy Networking and Services), Misfi (Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc.), Trifpss (Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur), and Alcadev. All these are lies that are only meant to close down our schools and shut down our national minority organizations,” she cried, her voice rising in anger.
As an indigenous person member of Congress, Cullamat
said she must report to Congress that the attacks against the national minority
do not only happen in Mindanao. She said the Dumagats who oppose the mega-dam
projects in Quezon and the Igorots who with the Chico River Irrigation Pump
Project in the Cordilleras are also under attack.
“In spite of all these, the national minority would persevere in defense of our ancestral lands, the source of our life and livelihood,” she vowed.
“We will persevere in defending our schools for
the education of our children. We will persevere in our quest for justice for
the victims of human rights violations,” she added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/5.jpg375720Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-08-01 17:08:192019-08-01 17:30:491st Manobo in Congress vows to defend Lumad schools, national minorities' rights over ancestral lands
The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Carlos in Negros Oriental Gerardo Alminaza requested the ringing of church bells every eight o’clock in the evening starting Sunday to protest the non-stop killing of civilians in the entire Negros Island.
“In anger and in a call for justice, in a spirit of communion and in a collective prayer, we exhort our parishes, mission stations and religious houses to ring our church bells every 8PM stating this July 28, 2019 (Sunday) until the killings stop,” Alminaza said in his pastoral appeal issued Thursday.
“Let the toiling of bells remind us
that the senseless killings are inhuman. Let the tolling of the church bells
call us to a collective prayer, for us to beg God to touch the hearts of
perpetrators, as we call on responsible government agencies to effectively
address the series of deaths,” the prelate added.
Alminaza’s pastoral appeal is entitled
“Exhortation to Government to Act on Ending the Killings, issued on the Roman
Catholic saint St. James the Great on July 25, a day marked with a fresh wave
of bloodletting throughout the province.
Hours after the bishop issued the appeal, a father and child were shot dead in Sta. Catalina town, the sixth and seventh fatalities in a particularly bloody day in Negros Oriental, local news outfit Visayas Today reported.
Sta. Catalina police said Barangay San
Jose council member Ramonito Nuque reported the killing of Marlon Ocampo and
his unidentified child at Sitio Tara at around eight o’clock. Ocampo’s unnamed
wife was also wounded, the report said.
The day started with the murder of
school principal Arthur Bayawa and his school supervisor sister Aldane by
gunmen who barged into their home in Barangay
Hibaiyo in Guihulngan City at one o’clock in the morning.
Less than an hour
later, Barangay Buenavista chairperson Romeo Alipan, was also shot dead inside
his home in the same city.
Later in the day, gunmen also killed
Raklin Astorias in Siaton town and Reden Eleuterio in Ayungon town, Visayas
Today reported.
Bishop Alminaza said that the “barbaric
deaths” of the victims, all happening in one day, are “manifestations of a
total absence of peace and order.”
He challenged local government
officials of the province to break out of their silence on the killings.
“Government leaders of the City of
Guihulngan and of Negros province, please speak up! Let not your silence add to
th growing number of killings. Let not yout silence embolden more the
criminals. Be bold and join us in the cry to end the senseless killings!”
Alminaza said.
The prelate also called on the police
and military to protect the people, promote peace and “not act to instil fear.”
“Maintain peace, do not create violence
Act within the law, not beyond it,” the bishop said.
Thursday’s pastoral appeal is Alminaza’s second this week.
Last Wednesday, Alminaza issued his first pastoral letter appealing
for an end to violence following the killing of lawyer Anthony Trinidad in
Guihulngan City.
He also called for the resumption of peace talks
between the government and communist rebels as well as a meeting of
clergy and lay leaders to discuss how they could help stem the bloodshed.
Activist groups and human rights defenders blamed Duterte’s Memorandum Order 32 of November 2018 ordering additional troops to for the increasing number of attacks against civilians.
“Negros is now fast turning into a killing field and this should be stopped immediately,” Bayan Muna Rep. and human rights lawyer Carlos Zarate said Thursday.
“While we strongly demand justice for these innocent victims, we likewise strongly condemn the inutility of authorities in putting a stop to this utter madness,” Zarate, a human rights lawyer, added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/3-2.jpg11931919Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-07-26 10:17:322019-07-26 10:22:05Bishop asks ringing of church bells vs killing of civilians in Negros
The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives (HOR) got off
to its usual running start and filed 67 bills and resolutions on the opening
day of the 18th Congress Monday.
While their colleagues, including other party list
representatives, are busy with infighting for the speakership of the HOR, the
Leftist lawmakers submitted both new and their old legislative measures and made
sure they are among the first to file them.
Makabayan legislative staffmembers were among the first to line up
at the HORS’s Bills and Index Service
office very early yesterday morning to increase their chance of an early first
reading of their measures and referral by the Speaker to their appropriate
committees.
Bayan Muna filed 30 bills and resolutions ranging from agrarian
refom, human rights, social pension, lowering of prices of basic commodities,
wage increases, social services to political reforms.
ACT Teachers Party filed 17 bills and resolutions ranging from
salary increases, social services, government services reforms to freedom of
information.
Kabataan Party for its part filed 10 bills, mostly on youth and
student rights.
Gabriela Women’s Party for its part filed 10 bills and resolutions
that the group said seek to uplift women from
economic woes and abuse.
Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said their party prioritizes
the repeal of the Rice Tariffication Law due to its disastrous impact on
farmers and poor households, as well as measures that seek to end violence
against women and children.
“Rice tariffication law sets forth the sharp drop in
the farmgate prices of palay which threatens the livelihood of our farmers, as
well as the phaseout of the cheaper NFA rice which poor Filipino families rely
on. That’s why we want to immediately repeal the law to provide relief to
millions of Filipino families,” she said.
“As an alternative, we have filed the Rice Industry
Development Act previously filed by Anakpawis Partylist to ensure sufficient
support for Filipino farmers and to mandate the identification of rice zones
across the country to boost local rice production,” she added.
ACT Teachers Party Rep. France Castro for her part
revealed that their 17 bills are bannered by their teachers salary increase
bill she said is long overdue.
“We strongly urge the incoming
House Leadership to immediately hear and pass the bill increasing the salaries
of teachers and other government employees. Similarly, we call on our fellow
legislators in both houses of Congress to champion this cause,” Castro said.
This morning, Bayan Muna filed its 31st measure, a
resolution calling for an investigation on the violations of labor rights by
detergent manufacturer Peerless Products Manufacturing Corporation, following
the series of bloody attacks company guards inflicted on its striking workers.
List of
bills
Bayan Muna:
1. Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill 2. Human Rights Defenders Bill 3. 2nd Tranche of SSS pension increase 4. Increasing Social Pension 5. Genuine Partylist Group and Nominee Act 6. Repeal TRAIN Law 7. Renationalization of Petron 8. Investigation of the Recto Bank Incident 9. Unbundling of Oil Prices 10. ₱750 National Minimum Wage 11. ₱16,000 Minimum Wage for Government Employees 12. Anti-Privatization of Health Services 13. Free Hemodialysis 14. Anti-Political Dynasty 15. Investigation on Water Privatization 16. Investigation on the Killings in Bicol 17. Investigation on Electoral-Related Harassments 18. Security of Tenure and Substitute Civil Service Eligibility 19. No VAT in Electricity 20. No Vat in Systems Loss 21. People’s Mining Bill 22. Genuine Small Coco Farmer’s Fund 23. Investigation on impacts of agribusiness to agrarian reform beneficiaries 24. No VAT in Water 25. Manila Bay as Reclamation-Free Zone 26. No Mining Zones 27. SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) Bill 28. Investigation on HRVs related to Memo 32 29. Investigation on Kaliwa Dam Project 30. Moratorium on Coal-Fired Power Plants
ACT Teachers Party-List:
HB 219 –
salary increase for public school teachers and other government employees
HB 220 – The Teacher Protection Act of 2019
HB 221 – lowering the optional retirement age of government
employees
HB 222 – The Teaching Supplies Allowance Act of 2019
HB 223 – mandatori na mga yunit ng Filipino at Panitikan sa
kolehiyo
HB 224 – Act Mandating Free Health Services for the People
HB 225 – exempting from taxation all amounts granted to persons
rendering election service for national and local elections
HB 226 – The Freedom of Information Act
HB 227 – The Public School Class Size Law
HB 228 – The Revised GSIS Act of 2019
HB 508 – shorter probationary period of teaching and non-teaching
personnel in private schools
HB 509 – guidance counselors in public schools
HB 510 – repealing the anti-professional CPD Act of 2016
HB 511 – The COMELEC Reorganization Act
HB 512 – expanded paternity leave
HB 513 – National Education Support Personnel Day
HR 20 – inquiry in aid of legislation into the status of
implementation of the K to 12 Program
Kabataan Party:
Students Rights
Campus Press Freedom
University Services
Human Rights Education
Anti-No Permit No Exam
FQS Day and FQS@50
National Youth Day
Mandatory Bonifacio Subject
National Filipino Youth Museum
Philippine Cinema Appreciation
Gabriela Women’s Party:
Repeal of the Rice Tariffication Law
Rice Industry Development
Magna Carta for Daycare Workers
Amendments to the Solo Parents Welfare Act
Repeal of VAT on oil and other products
Resolution seeking to review the concession agreement of the MWSS
Amendments to the Anti-Rape Law
Electronic Violence Against Women and Children (EVAWC)
Repeal of the Human Security Act (HSA)
Divorce bill
The progressive parties said the 67 bills are just
their initial submissions. # (Raymund B.
Villanueva)
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Another activist was gunned down in Bicol this morning
following the assassination of two human rights workers in Sorsogon City
Saturday, June 15.
Neptali Morada, former popular campaigns committee head of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol, regional Bayan Muna head and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines member was on his way to work when waylaid by unidentified suspects in Barangay San Isidro, Naga City, Camarines Sur at about eight o’clock this morning.
The victim works as a staff member of former Camarines Sur
vice governor Ato Peña.
Ma. Roja Banua, National Democratic Front in Bikol spokesperson, demanded justice for Morada as well as for Nelly Bagasala and Ryan Hubilla, the two human rights workers slain in Sorsogon.
Banua also reported that a certain Edwin “Ka Dupax” Demetera, allegedly an hors de combat, was tortured and killed by the military who captured him last June 13.
Banua said was captured by 31st Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army and Philippine National Police personnel in Barangay Incarizan, Magallanes, Sorsogon but was beaten up and gunned down outside his house.
The Romulo Jallores Command of the New People’s Army said Demetera was on medical leave due to a swollen foot and was in no condition to fight. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/nep.jpg15122016Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-06-17 12:27:102019-06-17 12:29:07BREAKING: Activist killed in Naga
The Makabayan bloc may still get as many as six seats in the House of Representatives as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) is set to proclaim the winners of the party list race tonight.
Despite relentless harassment and vilification by the military and police throughout the campaign period up to election day last May 13, the progressive parties amassed a total of 2,236,155 votes that may give the bloc up to six seats in the 18th Congress, just one less than its current number of representatives.
Bayan Muna is set to have three seats after garnering 1,117,403
votes representing 4.01% of all party list votes cast.
It placed second behind high-spending ACT-CIS Party, the only other party to win three seats.
Gabriela Women’s Party placed 12th in the race, garnering 449,440 votes representing 1.61% of all party list votes cast and winning one seat.
ACT Teachers Party came close behind at 15th place, with 395,327 votes representing 1.42% of all party list votes cast and winning one seat.
Gabriela Womens’ and ACT Teachers’ each have two sitting representatives in the current 17th Congress.
Both groups are the only parties in their respective sectors elected to any legislature in the entire world.
At 51st place and the last group to win a seat is Kabataan Party, garnering 196,385 votes representing 0.70% of all party list votes cast.
Anakpawis, however, failed to win a seat, placing at 62nd place with 146,511 votes representing 0.53% of all party list votes cast.
The NBOC is set to proclaim all 51 winning parties at seven
o’clock tonight at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay
City.
Gabriela Womens’ Party has two seats, ACT Teachers Party has two more while Bayan Muna, Kabataan and Anakpawis have one each in the current 17th Congress.
The bloc lost one seat in May 13’s elections.
Relentless attacks
Earlier, the Makabayan Bloc complained of threats and harassments of its campaigners, members and supporters by the military and police.
A massive “zero vote” was also launched in Mindanao prior to the elections while Davao City mayor Sara Duterte openly called on her constituents not to vote for Makabayan parties.
Makabayan members also suffered two massacres in Negros Island and arrests of supporters in Bulacan and Bohol whiles its supporters were prevented from voting in several regions across the country.
On election day last May 13, Philippine National Police officers distributed newsletters tagging Makabayan parties as communist fronts.
“Despite many reports of fraud, the Rodrigo Duterte regime cannot defeat
the people’s will,” Bayan Muna second nominee Ferdinand Gaite earlier
told Kodao. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bm-1.jpg720960Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-05-22 15:33:122019-05-22 17:41:11Makabayan bloc set to win 6 seats
“Mali. Kasagsagan pa lang ng eleksiyon, gumagawa na sila ng black propaganda para wala nang bumoto sa partido namin.”–Teodora Tañola, Bayan Muna member.
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Nagtungo sa Commission on Elections o COMELEC ang iba’t-ibang grupo para magprotesta kaugnay sa naganap na dayaan sa nakaraang eleksyon noong Mayo 13.
Ayon sa Bayan Muna, dapat ipaliwanag ng COMELEC kung bakit madaming pumalya at nagka-aberya na precint count optical scan o PCOS machine sa ibat-ibang presinto. Marami ring reklamo ng vote buying, pananakot at paninira laban sa mga progresibong partylist at kandidato.
Nais nila na managot ang COMELEC dahil sa kapalpakan nito sa pangangasiwa ng eleksyon. Hinayaan din umano nito na makapamayagpag ang administrasyon at magbuhos ng rekurso ng taumbayan para manalo lalo na sa Senado.
Nauna namang nagprotesta ang mga kabataan sa Philippine International Convention Center o PICC noong Mayo 13 dahil sa napaulat na paninira ng PNP sa mga progresibong partylist. Iniulat na namamahagi ng babasahin ang ilang pulis sa mga botante na laban sa mga nasabing partylist. (Bidyo ni: Joseph Cuevas/ Kodao)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/thieves.jpg509764Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-05-15 09:02:512019-05-15 09:02:53Protesta ng mga aktibista kontra sa malawakang pandaraya sa halalang 2019
Furious campaigning by state forces and online trolls
against progressive parties failed to stop Bayan Muna (BM) from gaining lost
ground in yesterday’s midterm national elections.
BM is at the second spot with about 1.08 million votes as of
8:12 am today in partial and unofficial tallies by the Commission on Elections
(Comelec).
BM’s votes represent 4.05% of 93.6% of election results
tallied by the Comelec thus far, assuring the 2001 top party list group of at
least two seats in the next congress.
“Despite many reports of fraud, the Rodrigo Duterte regime
cannot defeat the people’s will,” BM second nominee Ferdinand Gaite told Kodao.
Gaite was referring to partisan election activities by the
Philippine National Police (PNP) aimed at discouraging voters from choosing BM
and other progressive parties in yesterday’s polls.
Officers of the Manila Police District were caught distributing PNP’s official newsletter “Pulis Serbis Balita” in various polling centers yesterday containing articles maligning BM and Kabataan Party.
Poll watchdog Kontra Daya also received reports of death threats and harassments against volunteers and supporters of the progressive parties in many parts of the country.
“The Duterte administration utilized its entire machinery—time,
resources, power, influence as well as the military, police and others—to also
push for its rotten candidates and parties for the partylist elections. We are
not surprised that the parties Duterte openly endorsed are those charged with
graft and corruption,” Gaite said.
Meanwhile, Gabriela Women’s Party and ACT Teachers Party are
poised to win seats in the next congress.
Gabriela is currently at 12th spot with 434,319
votes representing 1.63% of party list votes cast.
ACT is at 17th place with 380,760 votes,
representing 1.43% of party list votes cast.
Kabataan Party and Anakpawis are in the middle tier of the
party list race at 48th and
62nd places, respectively.
Kabataan has 189,830 votes, representing 0.71% of the votes
with Anakpawis has 140,567 votes, representing 0.53 of the votes.
Member organizations of Kabataan Party are set to hold indignation
rallies throughout the country this afternoon to protest fraud in yesterday’s
polls as well as the delayed posting of results by Comelec’s faulty servers.# (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bm.jpg720960Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-05-14 09:46:482019-05-14 09:46:49PNP, AFP fail to stop Bayan Muna from winning