PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP denounces Malacaņang Red scare
March 15, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philppines today strongly denounced Malacaņang's Red scare tactics against progressive political parties as a virtual feeding of innocents to the lions.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" said in a statement that in Malacaņang's desperation to win the elections "by hook or by crook," it is now pushing a Red scare campaign to negate the strong popular appeal and massive vote potential of progressive parties.

Rosal lambasted Malacaņang top security adviser Norberto Gonzales for concocting the lie that Bayan Muna representatives are channeling millions of pesos from their priority development assistance (PDA) funds to the New People's Army (NPA).

"In doing so, Malacaņang is virtually signalling the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and their paramilitary and other fascist forces to attack, snatch, harass, and kill the organizers and supporters of the progressive party list organization," Rosal said

Rosal expressed that the accusation voiced by Malacaņang's national security adviser is reflective of his clerico-fascist character as well as the militarist sway that dominates Malacaņang thinking and policies.

Earlier, Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo denounced Gonzales for his "unfair and irresponsible" accusation against Bayan Muna representatives.

Ocampo explained that all of the 480 million pesos of their PDA funds since 2001 were used to finance 673 development projects nationwide for the benefit of the people. Ocampo said because of Gonzales' statement, Bayan Muna is now being turned into "a fair game for those blood-thirsty elements in the Armed Forces of the Philippines." Ocampo said that military and paramilitary groups have in fact already killed 37 of its members nationwide

Ocampo said Gonzales wants to stop Bayan Muna from topping the party-list elections for the second consecutive time. Bayan Muna topped the last party list elections in 2001. It has since consistently topped all poll surveys. In the latest Pulse Asia Survey, Bayan Muna garnered more than 10% of party list votes, way above all the rest. Bayan Muna's allied party list organizations, Anak ng Bayan and Gabriela also made it to the top ten in the survey.

Rosal said Malacanang is intensively stepping up its campaign against Bayan Muna and other progressive parties in the hope of downing them and winning in her favor the massive vote potential of their large constituency and influence that would otherwise go against her.

He added that the most rabid reactionaries wish to remove Bayan Muna and prevent similar progressive parties from Congress as these pose strong opposition to US-dictated socio-economic, political, military and foreign policy programs of the reactionary forces and government.###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



Back to top