Duterte has no illusion that he can magically make his clique win in a fair election. The dictator fully knows that if the majority’s voice will be heeded, then his daughter Sarah Duterte and Bongbong Marcos, another dictator’s heir, do not have even a strand of hope in winning as the next leaders of the country. With this, it is predictable for him to mastermind futile scenarios of lawlessness. Through these, he attempts to block the free elections and the complete exercise of the people’s right to vote and choose their own leader.

In Bikol, successive cases of human rights violations, fake encounters and acts of lawlessness architected by the military and police besieged the beginning of the year. One of the biggest attacks was the aerial bombing operations of the Joint Task Force Bicolandia last February 21, at four in the morning, in Brgy. Igang, Masbate City. Six bombs were dropped by A-29B Super Tucano attack helicopters on the said community. This caused fear and trauma among the residents as well as the destruction of livelihoods.

Using these orchestrated attacks, the regime disguises its deployment of an even larger AFP-PNP-CAFGU force in the region – especially in provinces it prioritizes. In Masbate, last January, a battalion was deployed to augment the already overwhelming volume of AFP-PNP force in the island province. Along with the proliferation of chaos and the preparation for scenarios of martial law and no elections, the mercenary forces have also been campaigning for the Marcos-Duterte alliance, threatening the masses and forcing them to vote for Duterte’s minions.

Meanwhile, at the national level, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and Anti-Terrorism Council have issued a resolution branding some legal organizations as terrorists. This move aims to divest progressive partylists and candidates of their support and vote base for the upcoming elections.

The NDF-Bikol is one with the Bikolano masses and the whole Filipino nation in the conviction that the elections would always remain farcical and rotten as long as tyrants like Duterte and his ilk thrives within the government. To truly practice the right to suffrage, the people must unite in opposing and frustrating each one of US-Duterte regime’s dirty tactics to remain in power.