TheRevolutionary Movement, the Filipino people and the Bangsamoro are one in denouncing the present rotten elections and aspiring for genuine elections

June 11, 2007



Manila-- The entire revolutionary movement under its leadership denounce the oppression, exploitation and abuses continually committed by the ruling elite against the Bangsamoro as well as the entire Filipino people.

These have been brought to scandalous heights and have become the focus of national attention during the recent elections as systematized coercion, unbridled violence, widespread vote-buying, deprivation of the people’s right to vote, unmitigated cheating and manipulation of the vote count took the place of real elections in Moro areas.

Just as they did in 2004, this time again the Manila government and reactionary ruling clique of Gloria Arroyo have been the masterminds and chief operators of these acts of violence, manipulation and abuses that exploited and insulted the Bangsamoro with the collaboration of local feudal warlords.

The Arroyo ruling clique has unabashedly been bragging about its "Mindanao command vote" that would deliver victory for it. Up to now, it is working double-time on this in a desperate effort to steal an additional Senate seat and sabotage the party-list elections.

Such violence, exploitation and abuses have been existing for more than a century against the Bangsamoro in particular and the entire Filipino people in general.

For decade upon decade, politicos from the elite classes, vying for "swing votes" in their "solid" millions, pour into the Moro areas hundreds of millions of pesos stolen from the funds of the Manila government to bribe Comelec officials and military and police forces, fund local warlords and buy votes.

Yet, after the elections are over and the elite politicos have taken their seats of power, the Moro areas are once again the most neglected and remain the poorest and most oppressed nationwide.

Apologists of the Arroyo ruling clique and their local collaborators go to the extent of explaining the "Mindanao magic"--the phenomenon of the local feudal warlords "dictating" 100% of the votes according to his favor--as a particular characteristic of the people in the Moro areas.

This is a grave insult to the Bangsamoro and overlooks the whole system of national oppression, exploitation and abuse and the collaboration of the national ruling elite and the local feudal warlords behind this.

It is part of a bigger socio-economic-political-cultural system existing nationwide that oppresses the the Bangsamoro and the entire Filipino people.

The movement takes note of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s refusal to participate in the violent and fraudulent system of elections in the Moro areas.

The movement wholly agree with our revolutionary brothers and compatriots in the Moro areas that such a mockery of elections can never be the answer to the centuries-old socio-economic and political-cultural problems of the people--the Bangsamoro and the entire Filipino people.

The movement , the Filipino people and the Bangsamoro are one in denouncing the present rotten elections and in aspiring for elections that are truly free and reflective of the people’s will.

This can only be achieved once the existing exploitative, oppressive and abusive social system is overthrown and replaced with a revolutionary, liberated, genuinely democratic and pro-people system.

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