By RUDY D. LIPORADA
www.nordis.net

Prevailing situations in the Philippines are fertile grounds for the Duterte regime to cheat during the May 13, 2019 elections in the country. If the opposition against the candidates being upheld by President Rodrigo ‘Digong’ Duterte truly represent the majority of the Filipinos, the only way for Digong’s minions to win is by cheating.

Considering that the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is under the administration, already the National  Citizens Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) has withdrawn its accreditation as the citizens’ arm of the COMELEC after the government poll body declined to provide voters’ data. The NAMFREL is noted for being a non-partisan election monitoring body which exposed anomalies during the snap elections orchestrated by Dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Denying voters’ data is tantamount to the ability of the COMELEC to taint the profiles of electorate. “Without open access to information and data, Petitioner (NAMFREL) is unable to participate in the RMA (random manual audit) because the inaccessibility diminishes the verifiability of data separately provided during the RMA,” said a NAMFREL representative in its statement.

Moreover, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) red tagging of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) as a communist front also diminishes the movements of teachers who frequently act as election volunteers to process results during elections. Tagging the teachers as communist sympathizers will subject them to intimidation to process election returns in favor of the administration candidates.

Considering that the candidates being pushed by Digong have cases of plunder, drug pushing, and varied shades of corruption, it should be very hard for them to win when pitted against seasoned politicians, professionals, and who sound and act like they really stand for the people. Digong’s lead campaigner also admits that it is not necessary for candidates to have integrity and honesty.

Considering that the majority of the Filipinos are also peasants and workers with the former composing 70 percent of the population and the later, 25 percent, it would be hard to believe that the opposition should not be able to muster the majority votes for the opposition unless the elections are rigged.

The peasants are now suffering more due to rice trafficking where the cereal is now being imported to the detriment of the peasants who are coerced to sell their produce at a very much lower price. Genuine land reform, as promised, has not yet been implemented. Workers of the other hand are still clamoring for increased wages. Contractualization or ENDO, as promised, has not yet been implemented. There are more overseas foreign workers (OFWs) who were promised to come home as there should be employment at home. There are now less employment at home because Digong has accommodated Chinese workers to steal the jobs from skilled Filipinos.

Chinese invasion of the Philippine Seas have also caused havoc among Filipino fishermen lives as they are no longer allowed to fish in Philippine territorial boundaries. Add the plunder of the natural resources of the islands by Chinese conglomerates and their push for projects that endangers the rights of indigenous tribes to the patrimonial heritages.

Moreover, the debt trap set by the Chinese which Digong has gnawed in exchange for patrimonial collateral without him anything really to show for the loans he has made, should send voters going to the side of the opposition.

Nonetheless, for what is at stake for Digong, cheating on his regime’s part must be a must if he has to insure his senatorial bets in the coming election.

Consider the following that is going viral among progressive Facebook groups:

17 SENATORS – A frightening scenario sent anonymously by a concerned Filipino.

“If the Admin’s Hugpong were able to win 9 (nine seats) out of 12 this May, they would be able to have a veritable supermajority in the Senate of a minimum seventeen (17) Senators.

Seventeen Senators out of twenty-four (17 of 24) is a majority that will be two-thirds plus one and technically, the magic number required for the Senate to EVEN OVERRIDE any veto by the President.

When they have this solid 17 out of 24, they will have the power and legal number to be able to:

1. Legislate in full what Duterte wished done including many ways to amend the Constitution in every way, foremost would be amending the 1987 Constitution from Presidential to Federal form.
2. Impeach VP Leni thru trumped up charges because they have the minimum numbers to do it. Impeaching the VP improves the chances of Sara inheriting the Presidency without an election where in the shift to Federalism, the new Senate with Bong Go, Bato, Imee and all those beholden to Duterte will elect the Devil as Senate President if Duterte liked it.
3. Ratify a new defense treaty with China where we will come under the thumb of China for the next 99 years.
4. Rescind thru a Senate Bill the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States to make way for China to become the only powerful ally of the new Federalist Philippines.
5. Grant special privileges to China to mine and utilize, on our behalf, the resources in the WPS so that “the entire South China Sea will live in peace & harmony”.
6. Enact a treaty with China where special access to the rich and vast Benham Rise holdings on our East side for a paltry share due in reason “that we do not have the resources and know how” to make use of it.
7. They may even try to expel Sen. Delima using their numerical superiority for ‘acts unbecoming as a Senator’ for her trumped-up drug charges that no RTC Judge wants to handle.
8. And last, maybe by August of this year, Medialdia will be ‘promoted’ elsewhere and Gloria Arroyo will sit as Presidential Executive Secretary where she can sign edicts in behalf of the President that ends with ‘By the Authority Of The President’ day in, day out; in support of the main plan that Sara must become President in 2022 and she, Gloria Arroyo must sit as Prime Minister when the shift to Federalism becomes final and complete.

So, you see folks, we the citizenry must strive to prevent Hugpong from gaining nine (9) more Senate seats this May 2019; because if they do – we might as well say goodbye to the Republic we hold dear, as we know it.”

Enough said.# nordis.net