Philippines - Makabayan adopts 5 senatorial bets from 2 major slates (tags)
Political alliances for next year’s elections just got stranger after Senate candidates of the two major coalitions received the endorsement of a 3.8-million-strong left-leaning umbrella group that is fielding its own senatorial candidate as well.
CPP-NPA Permit to Campaign Fees: Fundraising or Opportunism? (tags)
The Philippine Left and the 2010 Elections The issue of the New Peoples Army collecting ‘permit to campaign fees’ (euphemistically named ‘revolutionary taxes’ by the Communist Party of the Philippines) from capitalist traditional politicians (trapo or rug) wanting to campaign in NPA strongholds has once again resurfaced in the lead-up to the May 2010 elections. The fees buy these trapo politicians a ‘permit to campaign’ in NPA areas. According to a February 5 Dateline news report, documents obtained from an NPA leader arrested in January this year, pegs the taxes from P30 million for a presidential candidate to P5000 for a candidate for local council. It’s a well-known ‘secret’ in the left that this practice of tax collection during elections is a lucrative source of fundraising for the CPP-NPA.
PHILIPPINES: Palace happy Villar is not hitting Arroyo (tags)
MANILA, Philippines—The rumored “hidden candidate” of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) got a boost Tuesday from Malacañang.
PHILIPPINES: Extreme Left-wing lawmakers, NP ties still open (tags)
TWO LEFT-WING party-list congressmen who are running for senator are still open to linking with the Nacionalista Party (NP) despite its alliance with the Marcos-led Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL). KBL or New Society Movement is the party founded by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., after declaring martial law. The Nacionalista Party (NP) was the party of Marcos prior to his proclamation of Martial Law.