ANALYSIS

Arroyo’s Sham Elections
Or How the Military Tried to Disenfranchise the Left

The 2004 sham election is yet another lesson for the people in their millions about the bankruptcy of the state, of the futility of seeking real reforms through government and of the sheer fakery and pro-elitist orientation of the bourgeois electoral system.

BY BOBBY TUAZON
Bulatlat.com

A cop and a soldier pore into election papers in a precinct in Irisan village, Baguio City 

Photo by Marlon Gomarcho/Northern DIspatch

There was hypocrisy in the air when, on the eve of the May 10 polls, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo prayed for a peaceful and orderly election. The other presidential candidates who agreed to join the prayer allowed themselves to serve as props for the incumbent president’s deliberate prank show: it was as fraudulent as the election itself.

By election day, close to 150 people had been killed since the official start of the campaign. The toll of fatalities made the 2004 elections the most bloody in decades. Many of those slain by suspected military, paramilitary and police elements – as reports showed – were from the progressive party-list groups.

Reports of widespread vote-buying and dagdag bawas (vote padding and shaving), violence and other irregularities perpetrated by the incumbent president’s party and supporters are being gathered at press time in preparation for the expected protest against Macapagal-Arroyo’s election. But by far the most damning evidence of election aberration was the direct, open and blatant interference by military and police units to make sure that Macapagal-Arroyo won the presidential race.

Surely, the military and police interference before, during and after the elections was, to say the least, unconstitutional and, under the law, those found engaged in electioneering should be prosecuted. It would follow that if such norm is widespread, a “failure of election” should be declared. This form of meddling was also visible in many provinces where fully-armed soldiers and policemen were seen in the premises of election precincts, usurping the functions of legitimate, civilian watchers or canvassers and engaging in activities beyond their official security duties.  

There were reports of election canvassing being held suspiciously inside military camps particularly in Mindanao where National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales was monitored touring provinces this week.

In the words of Amira Ali Lidasan, House nominee of the Suara Bangsamoro party, a few days past “Terror continues to rage in Mindanao and in many incidents the military” is the suspected perpetrator. Disputing claims by Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya of military non-interference in the elections, Lidasan cited cases of “military intervention in the polling precincts and canvassing…in almost all parts of Mindanao.”

“The imposing, authoritarian and highly intimidating presence of armed military personnel in polling and canvassing precincts destroy the democratic atmosphere needed for the conduct of peaceful and honest elections,” Lidasan said.

Patriots

The Suara Bangsamoro leader’s concern was echoed by the Patriots International Ecumenical Election Monitoring Mission (IEEMM), a group of Americans, Australians and Europeans who toured the country to observe the elections. In a message of solidarity on May 14, mission spokesperson Mary Carol Jennings of the United States condemned the “anomaly-fraught and violence-ridden elections.”

“The shedding of blood is never a peaceful situation,” Jennings told reporters in Manila. “Every fallen body is a judgment on the way the authorities take advantage of their position and power. How can we place the country’s future in the hands of such politicians?”

Patriots had also revealed that about 20 percent of the country’s 43 million voters failed to vote. Along with other groups and concerned citizens, it also accused Macapagal-Arroyo of using government resources during the campaign to ensure her victory and stay in power.

Most outrageous however was the systematic and nationwide use of physical violence, intimidation and vilification by the military and police to disenfranchise the six progressive Party-list groups, namely, Bayan Muna (people first), Anakpawis (toiling masses), Gabriela Women’s Party, Anak ng Bayan (nation’s youth), Migrante Sectoral Party and Suara Bangsamoro (voice of the Moro people).

In the run-up to the election, more than 10 leaders and members of the Party-list groups had been killed and three were declared missing. The figure constituted nearly 10 percent of the number of people killed during the elections. Scores of other members were arrested without warrant while many others faced harassment.

A recent victim of military violence was Pedro Gonzales, a peasant leader who was shot nine times in an ambush by two suspected military agents May 12 in Gumaca, Quezon south of Manila. Gonzales – Tata Pido to friends – was coordinator of Anakpawis in Quezon and a sure winner as board member of Gumaca’s fourth district. The following day, another Party-list activist, Henry Buduan was killed in Compostela Valley, southern Philippines.

There were also reports of military and police raids of Party-list headquarters, as well as military surveillance and death threats.

31 cases

Bayan Muna, according to Rep. Satur Ocampo, had so far documented at least 31 cases of election fraud and harassment against it and the five allied political parties. For instance, thousands of the progressive Party-list groups’ votes were reduced to a few hundreds at the provincial level. Anakpawis’ House nominee Crispin Beltran said their votes were shaved and then padded into the 11 pro-administration and pro-military Party-list groups.

In pre-election surveys, the bloc of progressive Party-list groups was leading in the Party-list elections. This apparently sent signals to the Macapagal-Arroyo administration led by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales in coordination with the AFP and pro-military Party-list groups to step up their vilification campaign against the progressives. All over the Philippines, military recruits and anti-Left Party-list groups were seen sticking posters and hanging streamers like “Huwag Iboto! Bayan Muna, Tuta ng Komunismo!” (Don’t Vote Bayan Muna, Communist Puppet) and “Isulong ang Pakikibaka ng NPA sa Kongreso” (Advance the NPA Struggle in Congress).

Although the Macapagal-Arroyo regime’s move to disenfranchise Bayan Muna began in 2001 – the year BM topped the Party-list group elections – through killings and other forms of intimidation, the president began using the dual tactics of accommodation and confrontation in the 2004 election campaign period against what her security advisers deemed as one of the most effective electoral opposition. At the beginning of the campaign, Macapagal-Arroyo tried to pressure Bayan Muna and its allied political parties to soften their political attacks against her. Without addressing the basic political and economic issues posed squarely by the progressive parties, the president intimated that she could use the negotiations with the National Democratic Front in order to release some political prisoners and push the peace process forward.

Iron fist

But Macapagal-Arroyo also dangled the iron fist. She unleashed Norberto Gonzales on the progressive parties with a threat to disqualify the latter on false charges of funneling public funds to the New People’s Army (NPA) and of being fronts of the Communist Party. Contrary to her grudging commitment to rein in the military against further attacking the progressive parties so that the latter could participate in the elections, she lifted no finger to check what was proving to be a systematic and continuing pattern of killings against Bayan Muna and the others. Meantime, only a few token political prisoners were released from military detention.

All these underscore the fact that Macapagal-Arroyo’s mandate to extend her presidency based on the sham election could not be achieved without the intervention of the military and police particularly in their acting as the coercive instrument to foil and spoil the progressive parties’ electoral participation. The president’s diehard political supporters including the “moderate” Akbayan and the military could only wish that only the politically harmless and pro-administration Party-list groups are allowed to embellish the reactionary Congress with a few seats for sectoral and populist representation.

The attempt to seal the voice of the Left in Congress spells more political disasters to the ruling administration, however. Repression breeds further discontent. It will further embolden the militant movement to use the parliament of the streets where the real voice of the masses in their struggle for genuine land reform, workers’ rights, education reforms and the like is most effective. It is yet another lesson for the people in their millions about the bankruptcy of the state, of the futility of seeking real reforms through government and of the sheer fakery and pro-elitism of the bourgeois electoral system. Bulatlat.com

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