Press Statement

November 20, 2012

Renato M. Reyes, Jr. Bayan secretary general

As petitioners in the disqualification case vs Akbayan, we are aghast at the result of the voting of the Comelec allowing Akbayan to run in the partylist polls on 2013.This may be because Akbayan is truly Malacanang’s favorite.

How can the 5 commissioners not see that Akbayan is a party in power that has influential cabinet officials and has multi-million peso campaign donors from the country’s ruling elite? Akbayan’s nominees, two of whom are Palace appointees, also do not belong to any of the marginalized sectors that the group claims to represent. Seems that the Palace worked its “magic” on the Comelec, after Malacanang’s repeated statements favoring Akbayan. Malacanang has indeed been very vocal in its endorsement of Akbayan.

How ironic too that Courage, a group composed of rank and file government employees was disallowed by the Comelec to participate in next year’s polls, while Akbayan, whose leaders are top government officials, was allowed to run.

We shall continue to expose  Aquino’s favorite partylist group and the anomalies associated with their officials occupying posts in government, such as those in the National Anti-poverty Commission. We call on the voters to reject Aquino’s favorite non-marginalized and over-represented partylist group. ###