ANAD set to appeal disqualification before SC

CEBU, Philippines - The Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (Anad) Partylist is set to file on Monday its motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court after it was disqualified by the Commission on Elections to participate in the 2013 elections.

Anad and other disqualified partylist groups are given five days to file their respective motion for reconsideration.

Anad Partylist Rep. Pastor Alcover Jr. said that they will exhaust all legal means as he called on his followers and members to just stay calm on the recent development.

“Di ko moatras og away, relax lang mo kay namakpak ron ang mga komunista,” Alcover said.

Alcover recalled how he suffered since Anad Party-list joined the elections.

In 2007, Anad was only proclaimed months before the next election while its proclamation in 2010 was also delayed for a few months because of protests.

The partylist is among the 19 disqualified on Wednesday for being merely “advocacy” groups rather than sectoral representatives.

Anad, an anti-communist group, is said to have links with the military. It garnered 297,984 votes in the 2010 elections.

 Election watchdog, Kontra Daya, claimed that Anad was an “adjunct of the government,” supposedly receiving funding and support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Kontra Daya listed Alcover as among the multimillionaires in Congress with a net worth of P5.45 million in his 2011 statement of assets and liabilities.

The Anad Partylist strongly expresses deep concern against the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines’ ‘dictatorial’ scheme on how government should conduct itself, particularly, with regard to partylist groups’ accreditation for the 2013 mid-term polls.

 “In reality, these groups are the very least concerned over our less privileged brothers and sisters as reality tells us that they subtly and fully exploit the latter’s woes and deprivations. The number of Maoist doctrines and teachings rammed on us, during my days inside the violent Maoist terrorist organization, taught us how to manipulate and use the underprivileged and poor sectors of the Filipino community in a wholesale and viled propaganda effort against government,” said Alcover in a statement.

He dared leaders of Maoist sectoral front organizations, like Bayan, Karapatan, Anakbayan, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, and Kilusan Mayo Uno together with their party-lists: Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Anakpawis, and Kabataan, to bare out any and all tangible programs they have implemented resulting in the improvement of the lives of the sectors they are supposedly concerned and claimed to represent in Congress.

“Surely, the noise and mass protests in the streets do not indicate improvement in the lives of the marginalized Filipinos but Maoist terrorist braggadocio,” he added.

Alcover also called on Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and the Commissioners of the Comelec to cancel the accreditation of Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Kabataan Partylists. — (FREEMAN)