Comelec denies Magdalo bid for party status
By Gerard Naval
Malaya; 28 Oct 2009
THE Commission on Elections yesterday denied the bid of Magdalo Para sa Pagbabago (Magdalo) for accreditation as a regional political party based in the National Capital Region.
“The Magdalo Party remains unrepentant and they still harbor the propensity to engage in another illegal adventure similar to the failed 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, should they fail to achieve their goal – this time with the use of the political party that they are now applying for accreditation and which may very well be used by them to recruit and indoctrinate disciplined followers who may become their blind followers,” the Comelec Second Division said a six-page decision set to be promulgated by the Comelec secretariat.
The Second Division said its findings contradict the group’s claim that “the party does not advocate the use of force or violence or other unlawful means to achieve its goals.”
It noted the testimony of former Air Force 1Lt. Ashley Acedillo, the party’s secretary general and spokesman, during the September 3 hearing that the Oakwood incident was not illegal.
Some 300 junior officers and men calling themselves the Magdalo group staged the mutiny in July 2003 to protest what they said was rampant graft and corruption in the military and the government as a whole.
Acedillo said they have not received a copy of the decision but it did not come as a surprise.
“As much as we were hopeful, since we complied with the substantial requirements of Comelec, we were also expecting the decision to be unfavorable to us. We recognize that adverse political forces are at play here,” he said.
Acedillo said his group will file a motion for reconsideration.
The Second Division invoked the Omnibus Election Code denying accreditation to any political party which seeks to achieve its goal through violence.
It also noted that the party’s chairman, detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, were among the officers who did not plead guilty before a Makati court hearing their coup case.
Trillanes was among the six core leaders of the Magdalo during the mutiny.
Last Sunday, the group endorsed the presidential bid of Sen. Francis Escudero as well as the senatorial candidacy of former Scout Ranger chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Marines Col. Ariel Querubin.
Lim and Querubin, a Medal of Valor awardee, are among 28 officers facing court martial for an alleged plot to overthrow the Arroyo government in February 2006.
The group also endorsed the candidacies of four others participated in the mutiny, including Acedillo who is running for congressman at Cebu City’s second district.
The three others are Navy Lt. (s.g.) James Layug, for the second district of Taguig City; Army Capt. Dante Langkit, for the lone district of Kalinga province; and Marines Capt. Gary Alejano, for mayor of Sipalay City in Negros Occidental. – With Ashzel Hachero