BAYAN Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate yesterday said President Duterte is red-tagging the Makabayan bloc anew to derail the presidential campaign of Vice President Leni Robredo, noting a growing number of opposition figures backing her bid, which endangers the chances of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Some members of Duterte’s party PDP-Laban have declared support for Robredo. They are among 20 Eastern Samar mayors who joined Gov. Ben Evardone in signing a covenant of support for the Vice President.
Duterte on Tuesday said some left-leaning party-list and militant groups are “are supporting or they are really parang (like) legal fronts ng Communist Party of the Philippines. He named Bayan Muna, Kabataan, Anakpawis, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), and Gabriela which are among members of the Makabayan bloc.
“Makita naman ninyo sa behavior nila and the way they espouse their advocacy… Left ang talagang drift nila (You can see from their behavior and the way they espouse their advocacy. Their drift is really to the left),” he added.
Duterte said these groups, including those at the House, are espousing to “end this government” and have even taken the government’ money and used it to support the New People’s Army. In 2017, the President also accused the left-leaning party-lists groups of being “legal fronts” for the CPP-NPA after the collapse of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Duterte’s political adviser, Jacinto Paras, recently said Robredo is “supported” by leftists and communist rebels, as he urged Duterte to support Marcos.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) stood firm in its accreditation of party-list organizations, particularly those accused by Duterte of acting as “legal fronts” of the CPP.
Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body will not take action against progressive party-list groups “until and unless a formal complaint is filed to dis-accredit or to cancel the accreditation of a party-list.”
Zarate said the President’s latest attack is “a desperate election squid tactic to create a wedge in the growing numbers of the political opposition that support the Robredo-Francis Pangilinan tandem, as well as to prevent the eventual reelection of progressive party-lists to Congress.”
“This recent attack of the ‘red-tagger-in-chief’ may be a prelude to more intensified harassment against the progressive bloc and the broad political opposition, including Vice President Leni Robredo herself, to stop the momentum of her snowballing campaign that endangers Marcos Jr.’s supposed lead in the surveys,” he said.
The Makabayan bloc and other militant organizations are supporting the candidacy of Robredo, the leader of the opposition, even if its senatorial bet Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares is not officially a member of the Robredo-Pangilinan’s “Tropang Angat” senatorial slate.
Zarate said the President is once again “foisting the communist and terrorist tag on the public to justify intensified attacks on his critics.”
“We have already seen the dangers of this kind of attack as it erases any distinction between what is legal and illegal, the unarmed activists and armed rebels — all in utter disregard for due process and fundamental freedoms. This is highly condemnable as President Duterte now paves the way of more acts of state repression and another wave of violence on our ranks, as he did before in his bloody campaign against drugs,” he said.
Since the administration has no admissible and credible evidence that will stand in court, Zarate said, “Duterte and his minions now resort to guilt by mere association, a ploy also designed to divert the attention of the people from the failings of the Duterte administration in the past six years, especially during this time of the pandemic.”
“The real intent of this attack is to immobilize us. They know that the Makabayan bloc’s whole machinery is now being mobilized not only to expose the corruption issues and other anomalies of the Duterte administration from the generals’ pork, to subservience to China, to illegal POGOs, high oil, electricity and water rates, among others, but more importantly to work hard and campaign for the candidacy of the Leni-Kiko tandem and to defeat the candidates of dictatorship and tyranny being peddled by Pres. Duterte,” he said.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said Duterte’s remark smacks of “desperation,” since it is obviously just “a last-ditch attempt to silence progressive groups in the run-up to 2022 polls.”
ACT Rep. France Castro said Duterte and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) are trying to divert the people’s attention from the urgent problems of the people of unending oil price hikes, low salaries and high inflation rates. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Gerard Naval
