Press Statement

May 2, 2004

The campaign of hatred, murder and intimidation unleashed by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime, especially by national security adviser Norberto Gonzales and military and police officials, against the progressive parties in the party list contest is dastardly and reprehensible and must stop immediately.

Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Anakbayan have suffered the main brunt of election-related killings perpetrated by military, police and paramilitary operatives. They have the moral and political integrity and strength to demand that the state campaign of terror be ended and that justice be rendered.

Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must heed this demand. The broad masses of the people, including human rights, ecumenical and other organizations, have joined the progressive parties in making the demand. The leadership and negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consider the demand serious and urgent.

The continuing criminal campaign against the progressive parties involves serious implications and consequences. It completely discredits the ruling system and its electoral process. It exposes the reactionary, fraudulent and exclusionary character of the May 2004 elections. It destroys any amount of confidence that has been built in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. It serves to justify the continuity and intensification of the people’s revolutionary armed struggle for national liberation and democracy.

The progressive parties have been shown by major poll surveys to win at least 10 to 12 seats. Thus, they are now the target of an offical campaign of fraud and terrorism. If this campaign succeeds in frustrating them, the progressive parties will be a major force for exposing the farcical character of the elections and the false illusion of democracy and for mobilizing the people against the fraudulent results of the elections. ###