BANGON Pilipinas leaders were joined by multi-sectoral groups in a mass action in front of Batasan Complex today to call for immediate action on the continuously growing reports affecting the integrity of the May 2010 elections.
It also called for the suspension of canvassing, if necessary, and pave the way instead for a manual counting amidst allegations of massive cheating in the May elections.
While the party clarified it was not negating that Senator Benigno Aquino III won the presidential race, it said that there is a need to uncover the truth of what really happened in the last elections.
“It is time to recognize that (Senator Aquino) is the presumptive President-elect and thus, we implore him to commit the office of the Presidency to help find the truth and get to the bottom of what really happened in the May 10, 2010 elections,” said lawyer Ted Pascua, Bangon Pilipinas secretary general.
Once the evidence warrants, he said, President-elect Aquino should “bring the responsible persons to task for trampling upon the people's sacred democratic right to vote and choose through honest elections, their leaders.”
Aside from Bangon Pilipinas stalwarts, expected to join the rally are Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Nicanor Perlas, and JC Delos Reyes. Also expect to attend are former MMDA chairman and vice presidential candidate Bayani Fernando, former DENR Secretary Lito Atienza, Homobono Adaza, and peoples’ movements such as Concerned Citizens Movement, Kontra Daya, PMP Sulong Pilipino, Agrarian Reform group, Bagumbayan Party, Bangon Pilipinas Party, and Philippine Computer Society.
“There are a lot of explaining to do as to how the automated electoral system ( AES ) was carried out. For one, it did not comply with the requirements of law and the Supreme Court,” Pascua said in a statement.
He said that while the party accepted the victory of Aquino in the presidential race, Bangon believed that those behind the “wrongs and injustices” should be made to account for the violations incurred.
“We call on all righteousness believing Filipinos to help the cause of truth and justice, to come out and declare (as did Jun Lozada then did in the past) what wrongs and injustices occurred in the May 10, 2010 elections. The only way evil can triumph is for good men and women to do nothing. We cannot correct any wrong if we tolerate it,” Pascua said.
He said Bangon Pilipinas is enjoining nation-loving Filipinos to join hands in ferreting out the truth about the AES .
While the task may not be easy and would require united efforts, it is what the nation needs so that the system could be improved for the benefit of the next elections.
Likewise, Pascua said pushing for an investigation of the AES is aimed at encouraging Filipinos to be a nation that gives high value to honesty and integrity and which shall not drown truth and justice in the sea of expediency nor surrender or sell their sacred right to vote just because of difficulty in ferreting out the truth.
“If we cannot find what went wrong and hold people responsible for allowing the people's right to suffrage to be trampled upon, then there is no more reason to call any election again in the future,” Pascua said. (30)
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PRESS RELEASE, June 8, 2010 from Bangon Pilipinas
URL: http://blog.broeddie.ph/bangon-pilipinas-joins-call-to-suspend-national-canvassing/
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