‘Travesty’ (and not all interventions are divine)

(Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at the Manila Times on December 31, 2021. We are reprinting it due to its relevance and with the author’s permission).

LAST December 26, 2021, the Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP) received mail from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) denying the certificate of candidacies (CoC) filed by myself, Senate candidates Ramon B. Mitra and Joseph Ross Jocson as “substitute candidates.”

It was premised on the Comelec’s assertion that the party had not complied with the rules requiring submission of the list of authorized signatories based on Section 2 of Comelec Resolution 10717.

On that basis, Comelec has declared Mr. Antonio Valdes who filed his CoC for president, as well as the others who filed their CoCs for senator, as independent candidates, ergo, not qualified for substitution.

The Comelec is ruling merely on a simple technical issue. Here is why.

Resolution 10717 is a new rule issued in August 2021 requiring parties to submit this requirement of authorized signature on or before September 30, 2021.

It is axiomatic that our laws are prospective by application and not retroactive. This Comelec rule is not exempt, so how should Comelec treat documents informing it of KDP’s authorized signatories, even if these are submitted by the party much earlier in July 2019?

This was after the 2019 midterm election when KDP also participated by fielding senatorial candidates, and certainly before September 30, 2021.

If you are Comelec, without any malicious agenda, would you still require a party which already has a list of authorized signatories in your office to submit the same? No need, right?

When you are told specifically by Mr. Jimenez that you may not submit anymore, would you still worry about this?

That’s how simple this case is and should be.

Apparently not to some, especially when other interest groups realize that we are the only party with non-politicians running in its slate. What this means is that this is the only party that will make the difference in this coming election and future elections.

It has the potential of altering the political landscape and the entire electoral exercise.

KDP and its candidates do not have the means, yet if they win, they can clearly deliver the reforms that this government needs and eventually elevate our people to prosperity, regardless of social status.

KDP and its programs and platform have, without a doubt, the potential of wiping out everything the common tao loathes: traditional politics, patronage politics, political dynasties, warlordism, rebellion, communist-terrorist influence in governance; corruption in immigration, customs, courts, internal revenue collection, land registration, land transportation, jails, the AFP and the PNP; and injustice by dismantling oligarchic control of our utilities, industries, labor and service sectors, and our marine and maritime economy.

As all of these social and governance problems emanate from this electoral travesty that has been happening under our noses every time we have an election, the KDP and a Parlade presidency has the potential of dismantling the relevance of a prostituted Comelec in the coming years.

Indeed, as Filipinos let’s begin to ask ourselves these serious questions:

If Comelec cannot rule impartially and fairly on a very simple issue, what then remains of its value to this democracy? If they keep on throwing simple cases for the highest court to resolve, should they not just close shop?

Do we really need lawyers in the Comelec? Maybe we only need honest people? If we are to maintain this constitutional body to ensure the real mandate of the people, then let’s leave it in the hands of honest teachers, ordinary but uncorruptible government workers, representatives from the genuine church and yes, a few good lawyers who will not make interpretation of the law too technical and vague.

Again, why Comelec? Because the problems of this nation start with the travesty in this constitutional body that has been robbing Filipinos of their votes and denying us the opportunity to be governed by good people.

Shall we always rely on divine providence so this nation will be spared of crooks to run this country? Remember how Cory came to power? Or how PNoy’s popularity shot up after Cory’s death? Did we have the good government we needed from these leaders? Tell it to the Marines. We got not only crooks but traitors of the highest order. Much of the national security problems we are enduring now is because of them.

Then again not all interventions are divine. Some were made and introduced by foreign entities like the ‘See-Eye-Aye.’

They were instrumental in the growth of local terrorists, starting in as early as 1972, when Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. worked with them to arm rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

These foreign meddlers have been sponsoring violence in Mindanao, where in 1982 they channeled funds to the CPP-NPA through the MacArthur Foundation.

I wrote about the MacArthur Foundation and how it supported the NPA in Mindanao, including former CPP-NPA cadre Datu Lito Omos, through a Belgian fund manager who is married to a Pangalatok.

We need to keep on writing about this foreign intervention until majority of the Filipinos are awakened.

Dr. Dan Steinbock, founder of the Difference Group, has written about the MacArthur Foundation and the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), Rappler and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), published in The Manila Times, with the title “Nobel for obfuscation” (https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/12/13/opinion/columns/nobel-for-obfuscation/1825749).

He mentioned BBC Media Action whose key funder is also NED, and I am reminded of an incident in Binogsacan, Guinobatan, Albay in 1989.

At the height of the CPP-NPA terrorism, a band of rebels ambushed a convoy of Philippine Constabulary, AFP recruits, while en route to the Regional Unified Command HQ in Legaspi City, for training.

Apparently, the NPA rebels stayed under the bridge for days, waiting for the convoy, together with the media to cover it. After the ambush, that video came out of the news footage of BBC news.

Now ask yourselves, how can these foreign media have the moral courage to watch the carnage happening before their eyes? How do you assuage your guilt if you are not part of that grand design to create havoc in the country?

The same intervention is happening again with the visible hands of Mark Malloch Brown. This is the same Brown who helped Cory Aquino build her image.

He was back in the 2010 election but this time with their sophisticated tools called Smartmatic. Having said that, I pose this question again: Are all interventions during elections divine?