Low blow, head butts LP EMPLOYS DIRTY TRICKS TO SNATCH 2016 ELECTIONS

By Manny Piñol

As the Presidential election draws near, the ruling Liberal Party could be likened to a desperate boxer who uses every dirty trick in the book – low blow, head butt and rabbit punches – to snatch a win.

Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, who is emerging as the man to beat in the coming elections, is now the target of the unfair and illegal operations being perpetrated by the administration party whose bet, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas III is languishing in 4th place of the 5-person race for the Presidency.

In Zamboanga City, incumbent Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco played the Bangsamoro card against Duterte when she urged the voters not to vote for a candidate who proposes the inclusion of the city into the Bangsamoro Federal State, obviously referring to the leading presidential candidate who espouses a Federal system of government to address, among other problems, the Mindanao conflict.

It was, of course, a misinformation because under the Federal System proposed by Duterte, Zamboanga City and the whole Zamboanga Peninsula were never mentioned in the envisioned Bangsamoro Federal States.

Duterte, in previous speeches, has proposed two Federal States for the Bangsamoro tribes in the Southern Philippines – one for the Muslim tribes in Central Mindanao which would include the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur and another for the island provinces of Sulu, Tawi-tawi and Basilan.

Zamboanga City and the three Zamboanga Provinces are mentioned as areas which could form the Zamboanga Federal State.

But in a city which suffered tremendously in the siege staged by members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) believed to be under Nur Misuari, a sure fire way of getting Zamboanguenos to hate Duterte is to identify him with the fugitive Moro leader.

In fact, text messages saying that Duterte and Misuari are in-laws because one of the Davao City Mayor’s sons is married to a daughter of Misuari, are making the rounds in Zamboanga City and the Zamboanga Provinces.

Duterte has two sons – Davao City Mayor Paolo Duterte and the very private Sebastian – and neither is married to any of Misuari’s daughters.

“That’s a big lie and a black propaganda,” said Peter Tiu Laviña, Duterte’s spokesman, who denied the rumour.

Laviña chided the Zamboanga City Mayor for “driving a wedge between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao instead of bringing about a solution to the decades of bloody conflict.”

But such is the way, the ruling party is playing the political game, especially since Roxas has been languishing in the cellar in spite of hundreds of millions spent for TV ads.

Even government resources and government programs are being used to promote Roxas’ presidential bid.

In Kidapawan City, top agriculture officials distributed farm implements including tractors earlier this week – at the height of the drought – in an obvious attempt to win over farmers.

The multi-billion peso Bottoms-Up-Budgeting Program of government is also being employed in enticing barangay chiefs to support Roxas with a promise of an “advance release of P1-M per barangay.”

Contractual workers of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) have been tasked to campaign for Roxas.

Government vehicles, as evidenced by the picture accompanying this article, are being used to campaign for LP candidates.

Worse, the administration, through their local leaders, are employing blackmail on poor families who are members of the 4Ps, the government’s cash dole-out program.

Poor families are being told that if the administration presidential candidate loses in the elections, their cash dole-outs would stop.

In the area of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where displaced families rely on food stamps, operators of the administration are telling the evacuees that there would be no more food rations if Roxas loses.

Among political leaders, those who support the administration candidate are assured of “protection,” as in the case of a provincial governor who was earlier ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman but who managed to hang on to his post after the DILG refused to implement the order by invoking its power to review the case.

Those who work against the administration face the risk of being investigated and charged with graft and corruption.

“Mahirap kung may masisilip sila. Titirahin ka talaga,” said an ARMM official who has pledged support to the LP presidential candidate.

This is how the administration, which prides itself of its accomplishments in the campaign against corruption, is waging its uphill political battle now.

Low blows, head butts and rabbit punches. All these are being employed now by the administration to win the elections.

They may have forgotten, however, that in this game, there are referees and judges – the Filipino people – and they see these gross violations and transgressions in the rules of fair play.

No one escapes karma.

(Photo of a government vehicle being used in LP postering submitted to me by a Facebook user; composite photo of Duterte and Climaco downloaded from davaotoday.com)