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Voter counting machine errors worsened in today’s polls, bucking the lowering trend set in the 2013 and 2016 national and local elections, watchdog Kontra Daya revealed.
When Bayan Muna members and Kontra Daya volunteers asked the police handing out the newspapers, the police said, “Wala kami alam d’yan, media yan. Basta pinamimigay lang namin.” (We don’t know anything about that, it’s media (sic). We just distribute these.)
The group in its mid-afternoon report said it has received allegations of vote buying in the provinces of La Union, Bataan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Camarines Norte, Negros Occidental, Aklan, Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Davao, Agusan del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur.
“Red baiting is a different level of negative campaigning. It poses risks to those who are red-tagged and might result in extrajudicial killings.”
The Philippine Senate could be the last democratic institution for the government’s checks and balances, independent of and not beholden to the power ambitions of the presidency and expected to side with the people and defend whatever remains of Philippine democracy, people’s rights and welfare, and the country’s sovereignty.
The labor groups such as the TUCP and the KMU, FFW and other groups that arose from differences in the labor movement are uniting on issues like fighting contractualization and voting for senatoriables who support it.
“These questionable party-list groups are likely to be elected if elections were held during the survey period.”
"We have seen how the massive resources of government are being put to use to campaign for administration candidates.“
The people must frustrate Duterte’s “serious attempts at dictatorship through martial law, bogus revolutionary government or Charter Change” by voting for the opposition.
There have been instances where the party-list system had been used by the elite to further their business interests by taking advantage of national and local expenditures, as was the case in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.
Some party-list representatives belong to political clans whose relatives occupy several government positions in a province.
Many of those claiming to represent these marginalized sectors do not belong to these sectors and are members of well-entrenched political dynasties and special interest groups. Some have been implicated in corruption investigations while others have been known to promote special business interests. They are among the 59 party-list representatives occupying seats in Congress today.
“It’s not like we’re doing this for the first time.“
“Voters should be wary of party-list groups of known political dynasties and big business interests claiming to represent the poor.”
The only prohibition on Churches is against registering as a political party
“If the government doesn’t want us to give services to victims of human rights violations, that is no justification to open us to attacks.”
“Why is the president putting much more store into this foreign intelligence body than that of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) which denied there was such an Oust Duterte plot?”
“It is not just an issue of poverty but also of the president’s intolerance of dissent."
The Philippines has now embarked on import liberalization of its staple – a dangerous path not just for the country’s food security, but more importantly, for that elusive economic development.
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