Saturday, May 05, 2007 Left, watchdogs accuse Kalahi of vote-buying By Grace L. Plata
PROGRESSIVE groups and poll watchdogs are set to file a disqualification case against Kalahi party-list for alleged "vote-buying."
In an informal press conference Friday, Bayan-Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) presented two witnesses and evidence that they say will prove their allegation.
"Ang Bayan together with People's Net ang mangunguna sa pag-file ng complaint against Kalahi," said Frankie del Rosario, spokesperson of Bayan-SMR and co-convener of People's Net, a body spearheaded by religious leaders and private citizens campaigning against electoral fraud.
Joining Bayan's complaint are progressive party-lists Gabriela, Kabataan, and Anakpawis and party for disabled persons, Akapin.
Among the pieces of evidence presented by the group Friday were a plastic bag filled with rice grains with a Kalahi sticker, cans of sardines with Kalahi sticker, a fifty-peso bill, and an accident insurance card amounting to P100,000 in a certain Fortune General Insurance Corporation.
According to del Rosario, the group also has possession of a movie ticket with "Kalahi" stamped at the back.
One of the witnesses, a certain Dido of Boulevard, said they voluntarily called the Bayan office to complain.
"It's not good if we allow this practice to continue," Dido said.
Dido said that along with a friend, they were handed pink-colored slips by visitors in their area for a Poll Assistor's Seminar for May 2, 2007 but it was just him who decided to go.
"My friend declined because he said he already knows what's going on there. But I went anyway just to check it out in the hope there is really a job available," Dido said.
"When we arrived there, we were told that lawyer Karlo Nograles will be the one to lead the gathering. Those of us expecting to listen in one a seminar, however, started to wonder when what we witnessed was like a miting de avance of Kalahi," Dido said.
He added that the younger Nograles told them to Vote for Team Unity and Kalahi.
"Majority Floorleader and reelectionist Prospero C. Nograles was also there and told us to help Kalahi win," Dido said.
After the short talk, Dido said, they were asked to fall in line and were handed the goods.
"First handed out were the rice and sardines, and then the P50, which Karlo personally handed to me. Last given out was the insurance card, that was already as we were waking toward the gate," Dido said.
He added that nothing in the talk that the Nograleses gave discussed functions and assignments as Poll Assistors.
According to del Rosario, their evidences and the statements of the witnesses will be forwarded the national offices of the parties to facilitate the filing at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Central Office before election day.
"Hindi lang kami mag file against Kalahi but some 21 other parties, which are bogus party-lists," del Rosario said.
Kalahi's actions, added del Rosario, is an insult to the marginalized sector they are claiming to represent.
Del Rosario said if Kalahi really does represent the marginalized sector who has nothing to its name, how could the party afford to dole out the commodities and the insurance.
"This only proves that they are being funded by big people and that they really do not represent the marginalized sector which is supposedly represented through the party-list system," del Rosario said.
In a separate interview, Kabataan Party Vice-President for Mindanao Karla Hyasmind Apat said the Nograleses cannot claim that the goods were merely intended to help and is not intended to buy votes.
"If it's really help, why just now when elections is near? When there's no election, they also do not distribute such help, so what does that tell the youth?" Apat said.
Apat said they will join calls to disqualify Kalahi as the party has "bastardized" the party-list system.
In earlier interviews, the elder Nograles said they are not buying votes but are merely using the budget allowed each candidate as payment for their poll watchers.
