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PHILIPPINES: AS ELECTION DAY COMES , GMA CHEATING MACHINE REVS UP

by AJLPP
The US-Arroyo regime cheating and repressive machinery for the May 14 national elections is revved up and ready.

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.
PHILIPPINES: AS ELECTION DAY COMES , 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 ready.

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 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.

The report stated that the Chadli Molintas Command of the New People's Army (NPA) has disclosed that the military is gearing for massive electoral fraud to ensure the victory of administration candidates as Philippine Military Academy (PMA) officials deny the existence of the said order dubbed as Oplan Mercury Rising.

Martin Montana, spokesman of the said NPA command claims that “sympathetic and conscienticized” junior military officers revealed that they have been ordered to exert all efforts to prevent progressive party-lists and candidates from winning and ensure victory for the administration coalition Team Unity and pro-military candidates in the region.

Oplan Mercury Rising In Northern Luzon

CMC's Montana further said that the military in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions are preparing to use all sorts of dirty tricks to disenfranchise the people of their right to vote that includes ballot substitution, ballot box switching, flying voters, harassment and intimidation of progressive candidates and party list groups, and destruction of campaign posters of anti-Arroyo candidates, and others.

“This comes as no surprise, as Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV had earlier exposed similar information,” Montana said. “His comrades informed him that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon had ordered ground troops to cheat for the 12 administration senatorial bets.”

Montana also cited military officers admitting on national television that ground troops were openly campaigning for Dato Arroyo and against progressive party-list groups such as Bayan Muna (People First)in Camarines Sur.

He added the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has been actively campaigning for the party-list group Bantay (The True Marcos Loyalist), which has as its first nominee retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr., who earned notoriety for the spate of human rights violations in his areas of command.

Montana also said army soldiers and Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) members in
In Davao Oriental also admitted to the media that they were instructed to vote for pro-administration candidates and party-list groups.

Massive Vote Buying Scored in Pangasinan

Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz who appeared on national media said teachers in Pangasinan were offered from P50,000 to P100,000 ($1,059 to $2,119 at an exchange rate of $1=P37.175) to undertake dagdag-bawas (vote-shaving and vote-padding). Same reports said opposition parties and candidates are being harassed – including Trillanes, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, Jonjon Villanueva, and even former President Cory Aquino.

“These are not isolated incidents,” Montana said. “There is an obvious pattern of national conspiracy to ensure that Arroyo loyalists remain in power and rivals are cheated. From north to south, in far-flung barrios where there is little monitoring and even in vote-rich areas such as urban poor communities in Metro Manila, the military has been deliberately deployed and ordered to commit electoral fraud in favor of the Arroyo clique and against all anti-Arroyo forces, in the guise of voter's education and peace-keeping.”

“The AFP generals’ standard reply is simply to deny any charges of fraud through the mass media because in the end, they go scot-free and will even be rewarded, just as Esperon was promoted to chief of staff for ensuring Arroyo’s victory through dagdag-bawas,” Montana said.

“There is yet hope, however, with the growing disenchantment among conscienticized, honorable, and incorruptible military officers, especially the younger ones, who can no longer stomach the Arroyo regime's depravity,” Montana added. “The more that Arroyo and her generals lust for power, the farther will they drive the people towards the path of revolution. The revolutionary movement and the New People's Army (NPA) will exhaust all means to frustrate the Arroyo regime’s nefarious schemes at every step of the way.”

Indeed, a text message from a brigade commander – an Army lieutenant-colonel based in Northern Luzon – received by this writer shows he is actively campaigning for UNI-MAD, one of the alleged Malacañang-funded partylist groups. His message read: “Iboto natin UNI-MAD na partylist, pantapat at panlaban sa front ng CPP-NPA (Let us vote for UNI-MAD party-list against Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA fronts). Please pass to all ur fam, relatives n frens and ask them to pass 8 on. Sugpuin ang communista (Defeat communists). GODBLESS.”

Earlier, despite promises that AFP will not be used In the elections, the President has ordered AFP and the national police forces deployed hundreds of armed special action forces In different parts of the country.

Human Rights Violations Escalates

- The family of Jonas Burgos and the DENR reported that they have traced the jeep that was used In the kidnapping of Burgos at the compound of the 58th IB In Bulacan. Last April 28, Jonas Joseph Burgos, the son of anti-martial stalwart and MALAYA publisher Joe Burgos was abducted by armed men inside the GOTESCO Mall. Burgos and two of his companions are still missing until now.

Jonas Burgos is a member of the peasant association in Bulacan, the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Bulacan (AMBA- Alliance of Bulacan Peasants affil;iated with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, . He acts as a trainor for skills development of peasant leaders in the province.

Bulacan has the highest number of people who forcefully disappeared. At least 26 activist were believed to be abducted in the province of Bulacan. The European Union representatives in Manila expressed alarm about this case of abduction and forced disappearance.

The Human Rights Commission had ordered the police and military to surface Jonas Burgos. Former President Corazon Aquino also made the same call for the military to surface Jonas Burgos.

- Several days before elections, the administrations bets are openly giving out materials prohibited by COMELEC without any fear of persecution and are blatantly saying that “ what they are doing is legal.”

Their leaders and candidates like Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales are openly announcing that they will give cash incentives from P 10,000 to P 50,000 in every barrio or town that will vote 12-0 for the administration. On the other hand, the COMELEC plays deaf and dumb on what is happening.

Psywar and Trending Through Media Manipulations

The US-Arroyo Regime is setting the mind of the populace that their camp will beat the opposition” because they have the machinery and logistics” to win in all the areas of the Philippines.

The regime through its media network are playing up “surveys” that shows that the TEAM UNITY will win at least six senatorial sets or worse it will 12-0 in Mindanao and the Visayas. This tactics had been played on in the bourgeois media controlled by the US-Arroyo regime.

President Arroyo ordered the military to augment the police forces and deploy their forces to help prevent election violence. Observers feared that the military will be used again in cheating in this coming elections.

The military have been perceived to have cheated for President Arroyo last 2004 presidential elections. General Esperon is one of the generals who was implicated in the elections cheatings in 2004.

This prompted former senator Jovito Salonga to say: “General Esperon ( the AFP chief of staff) can be likened to General Ver”, the former Marcos chief of staff who managed the elections during martial law.

General Ver, Marcos chief bodyguard, was also implicated and was charged but was cleared in 1984 by a commission formed by Marcos on the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr in 1983.

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