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Volume IV,  Number 14              May 9 - 15, 2004            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Exposed: Massive Cheating, Vote-Buying by Arroyos in Negros

Supporters of incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are stopping at nothing to ensure her victory and that of her brother-in-law, a candidate for Congress, in this week’s elections. The election strategy, it was reported, involves millions of government funds, massive cheating and vote-buying and the fielding of military, police and paramilitary forces.

By Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat.com/Cobra-ans

BACOLOD CITY - Government funds, cheating and vote-buying will be used by supporters of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure her and her brother-in-law’s victory in Negros in the May 10 elections.

This accusation was made by former priest, Frank Fernandez, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Negros Island, in central Philippines.

Similar accusations were made by leaders of militant groups as well as opposition leaders over the weekend. The election strategy, they said, also involves the use of military and police forces as well as the renegade Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).

In a statement sent to the Negros press Friday, Fernandez said the Arroyos are pouring in millions of funds to ensure victory of the standard-bearer of the K-4 Coalition and Iggy Arroyo who is running for representative of Negros Occidental’s fifth district.

These funds are being poured into key political operations in the province by the president’s brother-in-law himself who is assisted by political liaison officer, Antonio Gatuslao, Fernandez said.

The plan to cheat in the elections in Negros was allegedly hatched after the defection of Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon to the opposition and after his patron businessman Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. had been neutralized through his continued stay as chairman of the board of San Miguel Corporation.

Targets

The major targets of the effort to further marginalize those opposed to the Arroyos are Marañon himself and fifth district Rep. Jose Apolinario Lozada Jr.

“The Arroyos led by Iggy Arroyo are doing everything to isolate Marañon, Lozada and those opposing their rule including the party-list group,” Fernandez said.

Malacañang, according to the NDFP spokesperson, had earlier released P1.2 billion for government projects in the province through favored public works contractors who, in turn, allocated 40 percent of the money for the election campaign. 

To pave the way for massive cheating operations, three army companies from the 12th Infantry Battalion are to be deployed in the fifth district to assist in operations to cheat Lozada during the elections, Fernandez further said. 

Another company is to augment the 11th and 61st Infantry Battalion and the RPA-ABB to ensure Arroyo’s victory in the district. 

To make everything proceed smoothly, Negros Occidental provincial director Sr. Supt. Vicente Ponteras was relieved as he is close to Marañon while 303rd Brig. Col. Jeffrey Sodusta was promoted to brigadier general, Fernandez said. 

Lt. Col. Abraham Bagasin, a loyalist of the Arroyos replaced Col. Gregorio Fajardo of the 11th IB, the revolutionary leader explained.

“Election hotspots”

Part of the grand design to buy voters and to intimidate and coerce them during the elections, the NDFP spokesperson also said, is for the military and the police to create a scenario that would justify military operations in Negros Island on the pretext of securing election hotspots or so-called “areas of concerns.”

With the voting disrupted in these areas, it is the military that will fill in the ballots for those who will not be able to cast their votes because of fear, Fernandez said.

A total of 200 ballot boxes will be used for the votes cast by Arroyo loyalists in the fifth district including the second district in the province which is tightly controlled by the Marañons. Along with this is the effort to deny votes for party-list groups. 

The arrest of Anak ng Bayan’s fourth nominee Ronald Ian Evidente in Dumaguete is part of this grand plan, he said.

Opposition agrees

Wilson Gamboa, a former defense undersecretary under the Ramos administration and spokesperson of the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) in Negros, told Bulatlat.com that he fully agrees with the observations of the NDFP leader.

“Arroyos are so desperate for victory,” Gamboa said, “that they resort to ransacking government coffers, and exploiting every opportunity possible for diverting people’s funds, irregardless how vulgar or shrewd their actions are before the public view.”

In fact, Gamboa added, the NDFP leader is not the first to expose this. The opposition and the Catholic bishops have repeatedly warned the people that the Arroyo administration will resort to massive fraud and violence on May polls.

Meantime, lawyer Marsha Cordero, Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer for Negros has been accused of doing nothing to prevent cases of election violations and in her failure to thwart the attempt of the RPA-ABB from intimidating and coercing voters in several towns in the province.  She admitted she had no knowledge of ballot boxes brought to the province.

In a forum in Bacolod attended by mostly opposition candidates, Epi Gelle, Secretary-General of Bayan Negros, noted that the Arroyos all the way from Malacañang down the region are reportedly spending millions for media ads, bribing media broadcasters and reporters as well as local officials and leaders of the opposition.

Gelle also said that special forces of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and the AFP have been deployed to support the Arroyos’ campaign in the region and ensure the victory of the incumbent president and her brother-in-law.

The election strategy, the Bayan leader said, is aimed at establishing a political kingdom of the Arroyos in Negros, with the center of gravity in the 5th district (central Negros). 

Sugarland

Bulatlat.com and Cobra-ans research reveals that the Arroyos own over a thousand hectares of sugarland in central Negros, particularly in the towns of Isabela, Binalbagan, Hinigaran, and La Castellana.

Unimpeachable sources however said that the Arroyos are now mired in debt so much so that a big portion of their lands is now under “lease” by some big planters associations, and being earmarked for contract-growing arrangements with farm workers associations and private entrepreneurs.

Gelle said that “this must be one of the reasons why the Arroyos have fielded Iggy Arroyo, because his entry into the Congress would give them a great political and economic advantage to consolidate the Arroyos’ properties, and eventually work in tandem with the Cojuangcos in dominating Negros.”

Opposition Rep. Apolinario Jun Lozada, however, belittled the Arroyos’ threat saying “they will have a hard time controlling the district, and asserting their trapo (traditional politics) dominance in Negros, because the people are far stronger and militant than they were during Marcos times.”

“The Arroyos’ kingdom is indeed a threat, but I and the people will give them a hard time consolidating themselves,” Lozada said.

Lozada is one of Negros congressmen whose candidacies were endorsed by Bayan Muna and its allied party-list organizations in this week’s election.

RPA-ABB’s electoral rampage hit

In a related development, Fernandez also lambasted the government for coddling the RPA-ABBs.

Fernandez charged the military and the police of continually coddling the breakaway rebel group which continues to commit what he said were crimes against the peoples.

In a tape-recorded and written statement made available to the local media, Fernandez said 303rd Infantry Brigade’s commanding officer Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sodusta and provincial police director Supt. Mark Edison Belarma have feigned ignorance and outrightly tolerated the rebel group’s election violations.

Because the breakaway rebels have not been granted the P500 million they demanded as part of the sham peace agreement, they have been let loose by the government upon the people and allowed to engage in extortion and criminal activities.

Fernandez cited the hold-up and robbery operations that resulted in the killing of Sta. Catalina town employees years back.  They have also been hired as goons, engaging in land-grabbing activities and illegal logging operations.

On the pretext of enticing the RPA-ABB to agree to sign what Fernandez said was a sham peace agreement, they were integrated into the military as a virtual paramilitary unit involved in supposed police duties but functioning as a counterinsurgency force.

The truth is that the breakaway group is under the operational control of the 303rd IB, said Fernandez. Bulatlat.com

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