MILITANTS TROOP TO COMELEC, CALL FOR DISQUALIFICATION OF 1-UTAK’S ANGELO REYES AND ANG GALING PINOY’S MIKEY ARROYO

Submitted by courage_phil on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 12:38.

Members of COURAGE, PISTON, Gabriela,
Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students (LFS), Anakpawis and other militant groups
today trooped to the COMELEC to pressure the poll body to disqualify former
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and presidential son Mikey Arroyo, first nominees
of 1-UTAK and  Ang Galing Pinoy
respectively.

 

The protesters argued that both do not
belong to any marginalized sector and therefore cannot duly protect the
interests of drivers and operators and security guards, the sectors they seek
to represent.

 

The poll body earlier issued
Resolution No. 8807 requiring all partylist nominees to belong to the
respective marginalized sectors that they wish to represent in Congress.

 

The COMELEC shall also hear today the
disqualification cases filed against Reyes and Arroyo.  The Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at
Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) was the first to file a petition seeking the
disqualification of Reyes. Senatorial aspirants Satur Ocampo and Liza also
sponsored two separate disqualification cases against Reyes and Arroyo.

 

COURAGE national president Ferdinand
Gaite noted that during the stint of Reyes as Energy Secretary, he did nothing
to stop the unabated hikes in petroleum prices and instead served as a
mouthpiece of the three largest oil companies- Shell, Petron and Caltex.

 

The militant group also lamented the
Ombudsman’s inaction over their petition urging the independent body to
investigate Mikey Arroyo’s erronoeous SALN. COURAGE formally filed the petition
last September before the Office of the Ombudsman. “We are really angered and
disheartened with the way concerned government offices act on cases involving
high profile indivuals especially those who are allied with Mrs. Arroyo. They
are not performing their functions as independent commissions and instead are
at the mercy of the one who is in Malacañang. Despite this alarming trend, we
challenge the COMELEC to immediately and favorably decide on the
disqualification cases filed against Arroyo. In the past few weeks, the poll
body has already committed serious blunders that reaffirms the people’s fear
for a failure of elections. Perhaps, they can still salvage their reputation by
not sitting on cases filed against fake partylists and their particular
nominees,” Gaite stated.

 

Ang Galing Pinoy was recently discovered
to have plagiarized the Constitution and principles of Bayan Muna Partylist.
Gaite pointed out  that this not only
reflects the incompetence of COMELEC but also disproves the authenticity of Ang
Galing Pinoy. “If Ang Galing Pinoy truly advocates the causes of security
drivers, why do they have to desperately resort to copying another group’s
Constitution? For the part of COMELEC, this instance only shows their double
standards in accrediting partylist groups,” he added.

 

The militants are set to stage another
protest action on April 19 and 20 which is also the hearing date of the
disqualification case filed against Kasangg and BIDA. The said groups are among
the many partylists which are allegedly government-sponsored. #