PHILIPPINES: ON ELECTION DAY , GMA CHEATING MACHINE REVS UP

Los Angeles -- The US-Arroyo regime cheating and repressive machinery for the May 14 national elections is revved up and is now on full operations..

The AJLPP reiterates it call for the Filipino people to be vigilant and fight with all their might against legalized vote buying, wholesale cheating and brazen violence in this coming May 14 elections. At the rate It Is acting, the US-Arroyo regime Is sure to surpass the much hated Marcos regime its brazenness and fascist terrorist acts.

AJLPP also expresses its deepest concern over the escalating violence and the propaganda in “rationalizing” its cheating activities “ in the coming elections. More than 100 armed incidents have been reported since the election season started late February 2007 in the Philippines.

The AJLPP compiled the latest updates from the Philippines:

- Reports of COMELEC election return certificates are being peddled at the cost of P 100,000 to P 60,000 per set has been reported by the ABS-CBN news.

The GMA Cheating Machine

- The Northern Dispatch, news agency based in Northern Luzon reported that Operation Mercury Rising" an AFP operation to make the administration senatorial bets win by " 12-0" all around the country was put Into action. A group of retired military officials have also reported that the AFP will be used for cheating in this elections.

- Meanwhile, another news agency, the Newbreak reported the use of new and old tactics by the US-Arroyo regime like the following:

- The use of pre-accomplished election returns (ERs) that were switched for the genuine ones before the municipal canvassing began.

- The use of extra certificates of canvass that tampered with actual provincial tallies.

The article also points out the 2004 tricks that will be used again this year:

- Wide-scale operations only in "friendly" cities and provinces. This will be justified by the follwing scenario created by the adminstration:

- An unusually high voter turnout in these areas.

- The buying out, if necessary, of the opposition's poll watchers.

And a new trick:

Precinct-based cheating will involve teachers, who, as election inspectors, will be tasked to misread the candidates' names in the ballots.

Newsbreak enumerated the provinces that were at the heart of the effort to rig the 2004 elections, and reported this: "An operator said that the administration targets to achieve for each TU candidate a margin of at least 100,000 (votes) over the opposition candidates in the 11 provinces mentioned in the 2005

Newsbreak report. That amounts to a total of at least 1.1 million additional votes per candidate. Bigger margins can be expected in big, solid-voting provinces like Cebu, Pampanga, Bohol and Iloilo."



Human Rights Violations Escalates

- Orly Marcellana, an ANAKPAWIS nominee survived the slay try of unknown assailants in Calamba, Laguna yesterday, before the May 14 elections. Four years ago (in April 2003), Marcellana's wife Eden, a human rights worker and secretary general of Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)-Southern Tagalog, together with colleague peasant leader Eduardo “Eddie” Gumanoy were slain by suspected military agents while investigating alleged human rights violations in Oriental Mindoro.

The regional workers' federation Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Pamantik-KMU or Unity of Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement) reported that on May 10, Marcellana was riding a passenger jeepney after attending a meeting held inside their office in Barangay (village) Sala, Cabuyao, Laguna (43 kms. south of Manila) when he noticed two motorcycle-riding men wearing bonnets tailing him at around 3:00 p.m.

He was on his way to the regional headquarters of Bayan Muna (People First) located in Barangay Anos in Los Baños, Laguna (62 kms. south of Manila)The motorcycle driver was wearing a helmet and a brown jacket, Marcellana recalled.

When the jeepney stopped at a Caltex gasoline station to refuel, another pair of bonnet-wearing men riding a motorcycle came, but this time one of them was carrying an M-16 armalite rifle. Sensing danger, he quickly jumped out of the jeepney and ran to a nearby community.

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