Dear comrades,
The Philippine legislative elections take place on May 14. The RPMM, in
spite of not having legal status, believes that it is necessary to
participate in these elections. We do this by supporting a party list which
defends a programme that will advance our struggle for a peaceful and
developed Mindanao.
As of now, the presence of this party list in the national parliament is
having a significant positive political impact on the struggle of the
tri-people in Mindanao.
However, as we approach the election date we are confronted with a number of problems:
The Lumad and Moro areas, especially in the Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM), are the areas where the rightists really plan to do the
kind of massive cheating that we experienced in the past. And as we know, it
is also in these areas where a significant part of our electoral base is
found. Added to this is a situation where the rightists as well as the
warlords of the administration are successfully avoiding having electoral
contests by simply making sure that there will be no opponents to their
candidates. To make this possible they have either bought or threatened
those who had filed their candidacy.
The OPLAN MERCURY RISING has been put into effect to make sure that the
chosen candidates of the administration in the senatorial and congressional
contests will win through massive cheating. The main bodies responsible for
the plan are the military and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). It has already been exposed by concerned military and political leaders but this
has had no effect.
In fact a massive deployment of troops can already be seen in the target
areas. This Oplan Mercury Rising will be implemented mainly in the ARMM
areas.
Moreover, the Arroyo government attacks left party lists by harassing their
volunteers in the field; other electoral manœuvres are:
– new party lists backed by the Arroyo government have been formed;
– traditional politicians have also formed their own party lists and attack
left party lists;
– the Maoist groups attack our camps and our electoral campaign work
Faced with these attacks the only weapon we have is the presence of people’s
organizations all over Mindanao to safeguard our votes.
The RPMM backed party list is now up in the opinion polls. However, we have
not only to win votes, we also have to protect them. Since time immemorial
elections in the Philippines have been dominated by guns, goons, and gold.
Our electoral base is broad and will guarantee us winning seats, but that
will not do away with election fraud and vote buying.
Since we launched the electoral campaign in March, it has really drained our
financial resources. We are now in urgent need of financial resources for
the final stages of the campaign. We need to mobilize forces for canvassing
and voting until the end of the electoral process. Most crucially, we need
more financial resources to protect our votes in various ways and thus to
ensure that the party list we support will get the seats in parliament.
Four days from the end of the campaign our finances are exhausted. That is
why we are launching an emergency SOS financial appeal for solidarity. Any
contribution you can make will greatly help us in our objectives, so we are
appealing to your solidarity. Success in this election will really push
forward the expansion and consolidation of the work of our party. Given the
urgency of this SOS appeal, because the election is just days away if you
are prepared to definitely commit a sum of money we can transfer from our
bank here in anticipation of receiving it.
Thanks and on behalf of the Party,
X.
RPMM
For solidarity:
You can send an message through ESSF email address using the “write us” button in the left column of the home page. It will be forwarded.