Philippine Election Updates

PHILIPPINES: ON ELECTION DAY , GMA CHEATING MACHINE OPERATES

Los Angeles -- The US-Arroyo regime cheating and repressive machinery for the May 14 national elections is all systems go.

To counter the evil machinations of the US-Arroyo regime, the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (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 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 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:

The GMA Cheating Machine

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

- 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."

_ Meanwhile the news agency BULATLAT reported that foreign election observers noticed first-hand the election cheatings in Lanao provinces when they arrived during the elections day. In Cebu City, foreign election observers were stopped and were closely guarded by strict security men. They filed complaints with the COMELEC on the actuations of the security peope in Cebu.

Violence and Human Rights Violations Escalates

- In Lagayan, Abra, five election officials including two policemen were shot and wounded in an ambush as they transported voting materials to a northern Philippine precinct hours before the start of Monday's mid-term polls, officials said. Gunmen, suspected to be in the employ of local political warlords, attacked them near the town of Lagayan late Sunday, May 13 and attempted to steal their cargo of ballots and ballot boxes, police said.

The attackers withdrew after police escorts fought back, but two police officers and three Commission on Elections staff were wounded, they added.

"It was so sudden. Fifteen armed men tried to stop the vehicle and opened fire," said police officer Edgar Bolante, who was grazed by a bullet to the head. "They were armed with high caliber firearms and we fought them."

Fellow police officer Rodrigo Rubino was wounded in the abdomen and was in critical condition in a hospital here. The three wounded election officers, who are teachers deputized by the Commission on Elections, were said to be out of danger.

The province of Abra has been a flashpoint in the campaign. On Saturday another police officer was shot dead by suspected hired guns in the nearby town of Danglas. The national police has placed the overall death toll since campaign season began at 113.

- In Laguna, Southern Luzon, 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.

- In the island of Negros, Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)-Negros strongly condemned what it described as the “indiscriminate and irresponsible” statement of Lt. Col. Jess Managquil, commanding officer of the 11th IB for claiming that the three peasants killed in Isabela recently were members of the NPA slain in a legitimate encounter.

A fact-finding mission initiated by Karapatan-Negros reported that victims Bobby Quilo, 20 years old, Richard Sarillo, 28 and Benjamin Gelongga, 72 were all civilians and peasants from the hinterland area bordering the municipalities of Isabela and oises Padilla.

“The three peasants were neither NPA members nor were they killed during the course of the encounter last May 5; their neighbors, including the wife of Richard Sarillo testified that the three were rounded up from their place at Upper Coyaoyao, Barangay Inulingan, Magallon by elements of the 11th IB and were massacred thereafter; their bodies were then brought down to Isabela and were presented by the Army as ‘casualties of a legitimate encounter,’ Jumar Utram, deputy secretary-general of Karapatan-Negros, said.

Utram said that the information they have gathered from the area revealed that at around 2:00 in the afternoon of May 5, armed skirmishes took place between the Army and the NPAs at Sitio Malipayon, Brgy. Sibucauan, a community adjacent to where the victims reside.

He said the skirmishes lasted for about an hour with sporadic gun fire, and when it subsided at around 6 p.m., Richard Sarillo (son-in-law of Gelongga) decided to take refuge at Brgy. Sibucauan proper together with his family. His wife, Marilou and five children went ahead while Richard returned to their house to keep watch and feed their livestock while they were away. Benjamin Gelongga, who has difficulty with his hearing, and Bobby Quilo (nephew of Gelongga) on the other hand remained at the former’s house at Coyaoyao.

- In Mountain province, Cordillera, three soldier were killed while 13 others, including a military officer, were wounded in an encounter with New People’s Army rebels in Mountain Province on Saturday May 12.

The encounter between the NPA rebels and joint police and military operatives happened at around 11 a.m. near the populated capital town of Bontoc, sources said. Supt. Joseph Adnol, chief information officer of the Cordillera police command, named the slain soldier as one Army Private Vincie Ezperanzante. The wounded policeman was named as Police Officer 2 Robinson Calingan.

Those wounded on the military side were Army 2nd Lt. Edwardo Sia-ed, Staff Sergeants Simplicio Primero and Ernesto Pico, Pfc. Iraneo Iglesia, Pvt. Clemente Binlingan, Corporal Reynaldo De Guzman, Pfc. Edwin Felisnino, Sgt. Guadencio Melsi, Corporal Alberto Gamotea, Pvt. Jose Pulido, Pcf. Oliverio Viernes, Pcf. Glen Mar Bano, Cpl. Rolando Tesalona and Pvt. Manuel Calaquian.

It was not immediately known as of press time if there were any fatalities or wounded on the side of the NPA rebels, who fled into different directions. The source said policemen were involved in the skirmish because they were escorting the military when the gun battle ensued.

The skirmish happened just as Chief Supt. Raul Gonzales, Cordillera police director ordered the deployment of 521 policemen to the six provinces of the Cordilleras to augment the current forces of police tasked to ensure peaceful and orderly elections.

Of the 521 deployed cops, 134 were assigned in Mountain Province, one of the areas in northern Luzon with reported sightings of NPA rebels. Some of the barangays in Mountain Province were identified both by the police and military to be NPA-infested villages.

-- In Surigao Del Sur, at around 10 am of April 2, 2007, Betty Quillano and eight (8) other women and 3 children, among whom were Dan-Dan Quillano, 12 years old, and Buboy Montenegro, also 12 years old, were resting in a hut about one hour's hike from the barrio center of Brgy. Caromata, San Miguel, Surigao del Sur. They were waiting for their companions as they were planning to open a new kaingin (slash and burn farming) field.

Suddenly they heard sounds of gunshots followed by rapid firing of high-powered firearms directed towards their hut. Dan-Dan was hit on the right side of the abdomen, causing his immediate death. The other ran for their lives. It turned out that the soldiers were conducting a routine patrol in the area and they opened fire at the hut where the women and children were resting.

The soldiers chased the civilians who scampered for safety, and they caught up with Betty Quillano. According to witnesses, she was dragged back to where her son lay dead. She was interrogated and repeatedly beaten. She was later killed by the soldiers by bashing her head. Dan-Dan's corpse was mutilated and mixed with a pig's carcass and burned together with his mother's body.

************