ATTEMPTING REASON: Bayan Muna nominee Neri Javier Colmenares confronts T/Sgt. Nicanor Caermare (left photo) as Alberto Corbes tries to negotiate with soldiers who tried to stop him and other Bayan Muna members on Feb. 26                                                                                                     PHOTOS BY DABET CASTAÑEDA

PAYATAS, Quezon City – February 26 could just have been another busy day for Alberto Corbes. As early as nine in the morning, he went around their community to have new Bayan Muna (People First) recruits fill out membership forms. However, as he walked along the narrow alleys of one of the largest slum areas in Metro Manila which is home to more than 168,000 urban poor dwellers, he was stopped by two soldiers.

“Bakit ka nagpapapirma ng Bayan Muna? Hindi mo ba alam na NPA iyan?” (Why are you asking people to sign up for Bayan Muna? Don’t you know that it is connected to the NPA?) the soldiers asked him, referring to the New People’s Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). “At saka wag n’yo na yan (Bayan Muna) iboto kasi disqualified na yan,” (Besides, don’t vote for it since it is already disqualified.) the soldiers said.  

In an interview with Bulatlat in his three-by-five meter house here, Corbes said that he tried to reason out. “Kami po ang Bayan Muna at hindi kami NPA,” (We are members of Bayan Muna and we are not NPA.) he told the soldiers but he was threatened. “Kung ipagpapatuloy mo iyan hindi ka aabutin ng kwaresma,” (If you will continue with what you are doing, you will not live until Holy Week.) the soldiers told Corbes.

Corbes said that this is not the first time that soldiers threatened people against voting or campaigning for Bayan  Muna. For the last three months, soldiers stationed at the barangay hall of this slum area have been going house-to-house to coerce the residents into not voting for Bayan Muna.

Bayan Muna, the party-list topnotcher in the 2001 and 2004 elections, have repeatedly denounced the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for treacherously killing its officers and members nationwide with victims now numbering 127 since January 2001. A number of its officers have also been abducted and remain missing.

Bayan Muna and its allied party-list groups Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) and Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) are also facing disqualification charges at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Bayan Muna, in a press conference last March 1, presented a secret military briefing material that proves the AFP is behind the “dirty tricks” to ensure its defeat in the mid-term elections on May 14.

“Go after leftists”

In a separate interview, T/Sgt. Nicanor Caermare, one of 12 soldiers stationed in this village, denied the accusations by Corbes. He said that they are just here for “civil-military operations” upon orders of Col. Ricardo Visaya, Chief of the Civilian Military Organization (CVO) based in Fort Bonifacio.

In an interview with ABC 5 aired on Feb. 28, Visaya said that he has sent his soldiers to the urban poor communities in Metro Manila to “go after leftists.” Caermare, for his part, said that they have been stationed in this village since Nov. 30, 2006 and will stay here indefinitely.

Members of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and GWP who are residents of this village said, however, that the soldiers’ presence in their area has sent a chilling effect.

Secret operations

The military briefing paper presented by Bayan Muna came from a “secret military source who might have been driven by his conscience,” human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares said. Colmenares has been Bayan Muna’s general counsel since 2001 and is its third nominee for the 2007 elections.

In the slide presentation titled “CPP-NPA-NDF Party List Operations for 2004 Elections,” the military’s operations in areas where these party-list groups are strong included an order to “prevent them from campaigning.”

According to the said presentation, there is a need to “file disqualification cases against CPP party-list groups” and “isolate and deter their coordinators of local candidates and the party list groups from campaigning.”

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said these statements may be the clear manifestations of the political repression their group has been experiencing since it convincingly won in 2001.

The military’s mobilization campaign, the secret briefing paper states, orders the soldiers to “promote other party-list groups” which includes Akbayan. Incidentally, the two widows who filed a disqualification case against Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and GWP before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) claimed to be members of Akbayan.

Election code violation

Colmenares said that with these statements, the military is culpable of violating Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code on the “use of public funds, money deposited in trust, equipment, facilities owned or controlled by the government for an election campaign.”

The law states that “any person who uses under any guise whatsoever, directly or indirectly, (1) public funds or money deposited with, or held in trust by, public financing institutions or by government offices, banks, or agencies; (2) any printing press, radio, or television station or audio-visual equipment operated by the Government or by its divisions, sub-divisions, agencies or instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations, or by the Armed Forces of the Philippines; or (3) any equipment, vehicle, facility, apparatus, or paraphernalia owned by the government or by its political subdivisions, agencies including government-owned or controlled corporations, or by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for any election campaign or for any partisan political activity.”

Colmenares said that their party will be filing appropriate charges against the military in the local courts and the Comelec.

Disqualification

If this is the case, Bayan Muna and the military may be facing each other in court often as election day nears.

On Feb. 23, two widows from Nueva Ecija (145 kms. from Manila), Isabelita Bayudang and Medelyn Felipe, filed a disqualification case against Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and GWP on grounds that they are “front organizations” of the CPP-NPA and thus “espouse violence.”

In their affidavit, Bayudang and Felipe said that Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano and GWP Rep. Liza Maza are responsible for the killing of their husbands, Carlito Bayudang and Danilo Felipe.

Carlito was killed allegedly by NPA rebels on May 6, 2004. Danilo, on the other hand, was abducted in 2001 by unidentified armed men. A few days later, his body was found in Nampicuan town in Nueva Ecija. In a sworn statement, a witness by the name of Julie Sinohin alleged that Ocampo, Casiño, Mariano and Maza ordered the killing of Danilo.

The sworn statements by the widows of Carlito and Danilo stated that their husbands were ordered killed by the said party-list representatives because their husbands were supporters of “rival” party-list group Akbayan in the province of Nueva Ecija.

The widows said that their husbands’ support for Akbayan has caused the defeat of Bayan Muna in the 1998 party-list elections.

Irregularities

Colmenares however said the statements of both widows were full of “irregularities” and “outright lies.”

He said Comelec records would show that Bayan Muna did not exist in 1998 and could not possibly run in the 1998 elections.

He also said that Bayan Muna and its members and representatives do not espouse or use violence. “The record and performance of Bayan Muna since its victory in 2001 clearly shows its adherence to the rule of law in pursuing its programs and goals.” Bulatlat

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