The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-Palawan greeted all Palaweños who oppolitical andposed Governor Jose C. Alvarez’ faction’s attempt to divide Palawan into three provinces for their own  dynastical interests.

With 172,304 ‘NO’ votes to 122,223 ‘YES’ votes, Palaweños decided to retain Palawan as a single province. The plebiscite was held last March 13.

“The victory to retain Palawan reflects the disctredited leadership of Gov. Alvarez. Palaweños refused to be fooled by his scheme to divide Palawan for his faction to lord over it,” NDF-Palawan’s Ka Leona Paragaua said.

Alvarez’ grandoise plan has failed despite mobilizing various provincial agencies and about 1,500 forces of both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police to campaign for Palawan’s division.

The NDF-Palawan has earlier said that a divided Palawan is also more “vulnerable to heightened foreign intervention and plunder of its rich natural resources.”

“The resounding unity of Palaweños is a fire that will continue to keep ablaze,” Paragua said. She further called on them to continously unite to fight for their interests and demands for basic social services, especially now during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A united Palawan, according to Paragua, is needed to support the fisherfolk’s call to junk anti-poor Palawan Council for Sustainable Developmentt Administrative Order No. 5; oppose destructive ecotourism projects; stop plunderous large-scale mining; oppose landgrabbing of ancestral domains; defend the West Philippine Sea and call for the removal of US military bases in Palawan.

The NDFP-Southern Tagalog earlier also congratulated the people of Palawan for rejecting the scheme to divide their province.