Karapatan signs
petition for disqualification of Abang Lingkod partylist
By KARAPATAN
July 27, 2012
QUEZON CITY –
Karapatan today joined Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) in
filing a complaint at the Commission on Elections for the removal
and/or cancellation of registration of Abang Lingkod partylist. The
complaint was filed by Wilfredo Marbella, Deputy Secretary General of
KMP and Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan chairperson. The complaint
included a petition to deny due course and/or cancel certificate of
nomination.
The complaint stated that,
“Abang Lingkod is not a party-list group of the marginalized and
underrepresented peasant/farmer sector“, because Abang Lingkod’s
objectives “do not contain anything that relates to peasant/farmer
sector and, none of its incorporator and trustees are
peasants/farmers.” On the contrary, “its nominees and leaders possess
interest in conflict and adverse to the interests of
peasants/farmers.”
Karapatan specifically took
note of Abang Lingkod’s standard bearer, Joseph Stephen Paduano aka
Carapali Lualhati, the national commander of the Revolutionary
Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB). The complaint cited
that Paduano, through his group RPA-ABB, was a recipient of “funding
from the government and big landlords in Negros, hence a ground for
removal and/or cancellation of Abang Lingkod’s registration with this
Honorable Commission.”
“The government, through the
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, has admitted
to giving funding support to Paduano and the RPA-ABB totaling P31
million already disbursed under the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA)
program. Thus on November 2011, Representative Antonio Tinio
questioned the allocation by OPPAP of P329-million for livelihood
assistance to some 970 barangays in communities identified with
RPA-ABB.”
Paduano, along with Patrick
Leonard S. Lacson, Provincial Board Member of Negros Occidental were
named defendants of the complaint.
In 2001, the Mamamayan Ayaw
sa Droga (MAD) was disqualified when the Comelec and the Supreme Court
discovered that it was funded by the Philippine National Police “using
public funds.”
RPA-ABB has been involved
with numerous cases of human rights violations, specifically in Negros
Occidental and Oriental. It is widely known that RPA-ABB now functions
as a paramilitary group.
The complaint cited that “by
nominating Paduano as its standard bearer, Abang Lingkod for all
intents and purposes, ties up its supposed advocacy with him. Hence,
whatever advocacy that Paduano carries is attributed to that of Abang
Lingkod. It could be very well concluded that Paduano’s track record
of violating the rights of peasants/farmers is also reflective of the
nature, character and objectives of Abang Lingkod.”