Akbayan tags disqualification move as "breathtakingly silly"

The Akbayan party-list group calls the disqualification letter submitted by another party-list group, Babae Ka, to the Commission on Elections "breathtakingly silly."

According to Babae Ka, Akbayan should be disqualified because it divulged to the public the names of Babae Ka''s nominees.

"They should have filed it on April 1 (Fool''s Day), so that at least the public would take it as it is - as a joke," Akbayan said in a statement in reaction to what was published in this paper last week.

Akbayan revealed that the names of Babae Ka nominees were taken from the group''s website, www.babaeka.tripod.com.

The group said the item was removed from the website when Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra announced that the disclosure of the names of party-list nominees is banned.

"However, the information is still cached in search engines like www.google.com. So if the name ''Sally Dagami'' is ''googled'', Babae Ka''s announcement on its first and second nominees would still appear," Akbayan pointed out.

"What is marvelous about this silly attempt to disqualify Akbayan is that it betrays the intention behind the effort. Why ask for Akbayan''s disqualification based on an absurd policy? What''s worse, why blame Akbayan for disclosing the names of their nominees when they did it themselves?" Akbayan asked. "In fact, if they want a strict enforcement of this ridiculous non-disclosure policy, then Babae Ka should be disqualified," Akbayan demanded.

"If they are serious about this, Babae Ka should also push for the disqualification of its ally, Raul Lambino of Sigaw ng Bayan, who announced to the public that he is running under the party-list organization Banat," Akbayan said.

"We wonder, however, why Babae Ka doesn''t want to divulge the names of its nominees? Is it afraid that more connections with Malacañang would be established by concerned organizations?" Akbayan asked.

Akbayan vowed to continue defying the non-disclosure policy of the Comelec. "We will reveal to the public the dubious personalities behind these administration fronts," Akbayan said. - Gregg M. Rubio/MEEV