CPP: Abide by people's government guidelines regarding election campaigns

From the CPP Website (Feb 18): Abide by people's government guidelines regarding election campaigns

Without exception, all candidates and their political parties participating in the May elections who plan to conduct their political activities within territories under the authority of the People’s Democratic Government must abide by all prevailing guidelines and secure the permission of the duly authorized revolutionary committees.
These guidelines seek to ensure that the reactionary elections are conducted in a way that do not violate the people’s rights and interests and in a manner that is peaceful, orderly and beneficial to the people.

Candidates and their representatives shall be allowed access to territories of the People’s Democratic Government to conduct their political campaign as long as they comply with the guidelines governing the conduct of their political campaigns related to the reactionary elections.

They shall be prohibited from bringing along their private armed goons or military, police or paramilitary escorts. They shall not be allowed to intimidate, threaten or coerce the people or employ violence against opposing political camps.

They shall not be allowed to conduct vote-buying activities or to bribe community leaders in exchange for votes.

They shall abide by the schedules to be determined by the local committees in order to prevent overlapping with schedules of other candidates and cause the least disruption to the economic, political and cultural activities in the area. They will be encouraged to conduct face-to-face dialogs with the people in order to provide them an opportunity to hear the people air their grievances and express their opinion and lay out their programs of action.

The People’s Democratic Government reserves the right to restrict the entry of candidates who are guilty of serious crimes against the people and the revolutionary movement. These include the incorrigibly corrupt government officials, those guilty of grave abuses of human rights, drug lords and people running and protecting criminal syndicates. Candidates who use the election campaign to facilitate the entry of military and police intelligence agents will likewise be prohibited entry in areas under the jurisdiction of the revolutionary authorities.

These guidelines have been drawn up in accordance with the demands of the Filipino people. For long, they have been victims of a rotten election system. Under the oppressive ruling system, dirty reactionary politicians, tyrannical landlords and brutal warlords hold sway and subject the people to coercion, intimidation and bribery in their drive to get themselves “elected”.

Reactionary elections have never been about democratic discourse, but about the use of armed might and wealth to force and bribe themselves into power. Once in power, these reactionary politicians use the bureaucracy and its coercive apparatus to further the oppression and exploitation of the people.

The emergence and existence of the People’s Democratic Government alongside the reactionary government of the big landlords and big bourgeois compradors have provided the people with an instrument to confront the reactionary elections, oppose its most brutal and anti-democratic facets and gain palpable benefits from it. By enforcing its guidelines, the People’s Democratic Government has effectively reduced incidents of violence related to the conduct of the reactionary elections within its areas of jurisdiction.

Over the past several years, the reactionary regime and its armed forces have disparaged the guidelines governing reactionary elections inside areas of jurisdiction of the People’s Democratic Government. Such a derogatory campaign seeks to undermine the fact that the revolutionary movement effectively exercises state power and that such state power is widely recognized and respected.

Despite such counter-revolutionary propaganda, candidates and political parties participating in the reactionary elections continue to approach the revolutionary authorities in order to seek compliance with the guidelines and policies of the People’s Democratic Government. Meetings are conducted freely at the national, regional, provincial and local levels in order to discuss the problems of the people, the programs of action of the candidates and the program and policies of the revolutionary movement.

Such meetings also provide the opportunity to explore areas of possible cooperation and coordination including the promotion of agricultural production, raising rural income and advancing educational, literacy, cultural, health care and other programs of the People’s Democratic Government.

The rottenness of the reactionary elections and the reactionary bureaucratic system are part of the oppressive and exploitative ruling system that the Filipino people seek to overthrow and replace with a genuine democratic system of governance.

Within the areas of jurisdiction of the People’s Democratic Government, such a system of democratic governance is being exercised and developed where the people conduct genuine democratic elections to select their officials and representatives from their ranks, and where they can fully engage in political and state activities.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/abide-by-people-s-government-guidelines-regarding-election-campaigns