Militants Air Fears of Bikol Party List Groups as Gloria Fronts

"Who do the AkoBicol, Alliance of Bicolnon Party and the Oragon Party really represent? We are asking these groups to truthfully answer this question and reveal their nominees. We would also like to know who is funding their campaign particularly the ones who have a lot of air time both in television and radio, big billboards and a lot of vehicles?"

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bikol (BAYAN-Bikol) has this query for so-called Bikol party list groups.

Tessa Lopez, public information officer of BAYAN-Bikol, bared that her organization fears that like in the past elections front party list groups were fielded by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to widen its base in the House of Representatives.

"It is hard to believe that a party list group can have so much money considering that they are supposed to be composed of marginalized people or at least represents them. More likely than not, their funding comes from some bigwigs and from Malacañang itself especially now that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is running for Congress.  Gloria would need a lot of congressmen for her to be a prime minister in the event that there would be a shift to a parliamentary form of government," added Lopez.

"As early as now Gloria is preparing for that eventuality and what is worse though is that she is misleading Bikolanos that these party list groups will really represent them but in reality are just her dummies," said the militant leader.

"We are not against a party list group representing Bikolanos but we want one that will truly represent the region and not the interests of the powers that be and their cohorts. We want party list groups that will really stand by their principles and fight for the betterment of the sector or region that they represent as well as the whole nation," ended Lopez.

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