‘Pinoys more aware of activists supporting Reds’

MANILA, Philippines — The military is taking some credit for the decrease of votes received by activist party-list organizations in the last elections.

Filipinos are now more aware of groups that are allegedly supporting the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA), said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato.

“We empower the people by giving them the right information. So when they got the right information, we saw that this was translated into votes,” he said.

Detoyato added that the voters are aware that organizations are taking advantage of the party-list system.

“They are not representing anybody except for the interest of the CPP-NPA,” he maintained.

While Detoyato did not name the groups, those which saw a significant decrease in their votes compared to the 2016 elections were Gabriela, ACT Teachers, Kabataan and Anakpawis.

The military, before the May 13 polls, exposed how the groups are allegedly used as front of the CPP-NPA, which the AFP now categorizes as communist-terrorists.

“They lost millions of votes, that is an indicator that people are already aware of their true nature. Before they used dual tactics – legal and illegal. They had legal fronts as well as armed groups,” Detoyato said.