- Jared Phillips
from The Spark June 2007
The May 14 election, to confirm 275 seats in the House of Representatives and 12 of the 24 Senate seats, was violent and fraudulent. The election is crucial for the political survival of the US-backed administration headed by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. If Arroyo and her ally candidates – collectively known as ‘Team Unity’ – do not come out of the elections with a majority in the Senate, they will not be able to continue with their planned ‘Charter Change’.
This is a plan to alter the constitution to allow Arroyo, who is a client president for the interests of US imperialism, to take another term as president. Facing growing popular discontent Arroyo’s regime has increased repression. The repression has included heightened military presence in regions that are key to the election, and a wave of administration-backed intimidation, abduction, murder, and election fraud.
In the period immediately before the election there were massive troop deployments in southern region Mindanao which included attacks against the Moro National Liberation Front. These military attacks displaced 50,000 people. In the region of Luzon, military troops were stationed in urban areas and universities. This was done with the intent to intimidate activists belonging to Bayan (a legal and genuine workers party), Gabriela (a progressive party that fights for the advancement of women), and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses – a trade union based party). The intensified military presence is an indicator of wide and systematic repression in the elections
At least 126 people, including candidates, have been killed in the election period. In an incident which was reminiscent of other state-backed murders, three poll monitors were injured when unidentified assassins threw grenades into a vote-counting centre on Basilan Island. In another violent incident, in Batangas, an elementary school that was being used as a voting station was burnt down. This caused the deaths of an election inspector and a poll watcher. The Philippines National Police (PNP) claim that the fire-bombing was carried out by the rebel New Peoples Army. Communist Party Philippines spokesperson Gregerio Rosal demanded that the PNP take back the allegations and apologise for carrying out the attack. Surviving victims of the attack have positively identified members of the PNP special operations group as the attackers. State violence has also been used to directly repress the left-wing parties and candidates. A leader of Bayan was abducted, and there was also an attempt to abduct of a leader of Anakpawis.
The Elections Commission was forced to suspend the vote-count in the southern province of Maguindanao because of cheating and vote rigging by bribed and pro-government officials. A public school teacher made a statement saying that vote-counters in Maguindanoa were forced to complete ballots with the names of Team Unity candidates for the 12 Senate seats. He said that he was forced to rig the polls. As well as producing false votes, pro-Team Unity forces have been accused of conspiring to lower the vote-count of left-wing candidates. On May 21 progressive organisations in Manila marched in protest against ‘vote-shaving’ schemes being carried out to reduce the votes of left-wing organisations. Election volunteers in the province have complained that they were prevented from monitoring the canvassing of votes and were not provided with election returns.
On May 22, with eighty percent of votes counted, it was reported that, on the basis of the partial vote-count, those aligned with Arroyo would receive 2 senate seats, the opposition would receive 8 seats, and independent candidates would receive 2 seats. Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes Jr. said that the Arroyo regime has used election terror to “…make the result appear as a ‘split decision’ or a ‘tie’ between the opposition and administration”. In relation to this election cheating, two impeachment bids were taken against Arroyo and were stopped by her allies in the House of Representatives.
Final election results are not expected to be announced until mid-June.
