“You can always trust the information given to you by people who are crazy; they have an access to truth not available through regular channels”—Sheila Ballantyne
Safely ensconced in his adopted country, thousands of miles away from the reach of any libel suits, self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison boldly accused a sister of President-elect Benigno S.C. Aquino III of conspiring with Gloria Arroyo and the CIA to cheat in the 2010 elections. I decided to interview the man hiding in the Netherlands.
“Let me read to you what you said in your interview with Pinoy Weekly.”
“Okay.”
“There are indications that the automated electoral system of Smartmatic, which is controlled by the US and its agents, was pre-programmed to make Aquino and Binay win. It’s obvious that a large number of votes were stolen from Manny Villar and Loren Legarda. Their precipitous decline was overkill and unbelievable. There are reports that high officials of the CIA, the Aquino family and the Arroyo regime decided on the pre-programming six weeks before the election. The meeting between Pinky Aquino-Abelleda and Mrs. Arroyo paved the way for the arrangement.”
“I said that in Pilipino.”
“Did I lose anything in the translation?”
“No.”
“Good, then we can proceed.”
“Fire away.”
“Your allegation of an Arroyobamaquino conspiracy is unbelievable.”
“Why?”
“I cannot imagine any of Cory Aquno’s children singing kumbaya with Gloria Arroyo.”
“You don’t understand how the ruling class operates.”
“How did the ruling class operate the 2010 election?”
“The conduct of the 2010 elections shows the rottenness of the US-dominated ruling system of big compradors and landlords. It was a process dominated by the coalitions, parties and candidates of the reactionary ruling classes. Beforehand, it excluded the leaders of the working people who were repressed or who were without campaign funds. It was merely a personality-based contest of the political agents of the same exploiting classes.”
“What?”
“It foisted a personality-based election on the oppressed masses. It excluded the leaders of the working people who were repressed or who were without campaign funds.”
“But didn’t you order Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza of Makabayan to ally themselves with the richest candidate?
“The alliance with Villar was a collective decision.”
“I heard it was not very popular with your rank-and-file. How did they vote in the election?”
“Makabayan got nearly 10 percent of the actual nationwide voters for each of its two senatorial candidates.”
“Ocampo and Maza got a little more than 3 million votes each, that’s expected, but why did Villar only get about five-and-a-half million. What happened to your command votes?”
“Most of the votes for Villar are equivalent to the basic electoral base of Makabayan and the progressive party-list groups.”
“Ah, so in other words, if not for your command votes, Villar would only have about 2 million votes?”
“Definitely, Villar benefited more from the NP-Makabayan alliance than Makabayan did. But by his refusal to denounce the Arroyo regime as strongly as did Aquino and Estrada, Villar prejudiced not only himself but also his Makabayan teammates.”
“How?”
“It prevented the Makabayan senatorial candidates from benefiting from the anti-Arroyo sentiment and increasing their votes beyond their basic electoral base.”
“So Villar spoiled Makabayan’s chances of winning a couple of Senate seats?”
“The public knows that revolutionary forces are not equivalent to any electoral party. They measure their success in terms of increasing the revolutionary mass base and armed strength in the people’s war and not in terms of taking seats within the reactionary government.”
“Then why do you and your revolutionary forces participate in elections?”
“What?”
“Your revolutionary rhetoric is getting old, Joma. Really old. You’re becoming an outdated revolutionary. Oops, I just turned you an oxymoron.”
*Most of Joma’s verbiage are direct quotes from his interview in Bulatlat.com.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Joma who?
A Japanese straggler?
Ancestor of the jejemons?
A lone native of Iwo Jima?
Or half-brother of Joma Yllana.
A partygoer or sociaLITE?
A cousin of Jabba the Hut?
Our jester in exile
An ideological dinosaur.
Miriam Defensor Santiago would probably advice JooMa to shut up.
Just as she advises GMA and Obama that it is not proper to give advise (to Aquino) that is not solicited in the same breath Miriam says that Noyy Aquino should address immediately “the biggest economic problems such as the budget deficit and the growing public debt” and get rid of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement.
For good measure she’ll prolly even call him fungus-faced or some other name…
What’s all this Joma bashing all about? Have all you guys forgotten what MB is trying to say in this blog thread?
Which is?
There are two actually:
1. Is the Arroyobamaquino conspiracy believable?
2. Who benefited more in the NP-Makabayan alliance in the last election?
Whatever.
Far as I can see, comments so far are focussed on what Joma is or isn’t, branding him as either a Japanese straggler, a jejemon, a socialite, a cousin of a small house or something, a jester, a dinosaur, and a face with fungus on it.
actually, Joma is a Filipino straggler.
Why do guys like him ever become so appreciated in our country as brilliant men? It’s always people like him, all bluster with little sense. Reminds me of Teddy Boy Locsin.
Since GMA is the top recruiter of the NPA, it is also very possible that there is a Jose-Gloria conspiracy.
A Jo-Glo conspiracy.
Jolog.
There is an outstanding arrest warrant. Pilipinas wants him returned — Joma : accused of murder, Joma and his implementation of “Kill the chicken to scare the monkey” strategy.
For “a point of view” (I don’t know the bias or prejudice of the authors), here are some articles:
http://www.spectrezine.org/global/CPP.htm
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1246
mike h,
By reading these columns, and by the sound of it, looks like one hell of an organizer, executioner, well thought out plans, and a CRAZY one at that.
Filipinos, will kill Filipinos. So sad…!
Uhm, I’m pretty sure they’ve been repudiated as untrue.
Joma is a has been. His people deserted him in the last election. They voted party list and for Makabayan candidates but they didn’t vote for Villar
And from what I’ve been told the reason why Villar accepted Makabayan was because Joma promised him his command votes. Turns out his command votes were only as good as the Lakas machinery and Pastoe Quiboloy’s endorsement.
Villar must be rueing the funding he gave the Makabayan candidates. Joma supposedly pocketed some hefty change too but that’s something that can’t be proved.
Joma is as useful as a boil on the ass.
Prof. Jose Maria Sison may be right. However, he may be wrong also. We don’t know. If the U.S. C.I.A. will work. It will produce miracles in countries, they dominate.Beyond the comprehension of people like us. From the overthrow of the Shah of Iran; which the C.I.A. deceivers, were deceived also by the Ayatollah Khomenei. To the War in Vietnam, which they lost. As I have always stated: “AH…THER MAGIC OF SMARTMATIC!” You lose, You win. That’s life, Prof. Jo Ma Sison. Stay cool, in Amsterdam. The old Revolutionary has not changed a bit. He is still a firebrand…
Meaning…he’s breathing fire and death.
“Firebrand”, no… the charge is “murderer”. Pilipinas wants Joma returned to Pilipinas so that Joma can be tried on murder charges.
CPP/NPA is on the USA State Department List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The USA Supreme Court very recently upheld a U.S. law that bars “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.
Individuals in USA who provide material support to JoMa can be arrested by USA’s FBI. Individuals in Pilipinas who provide material support to JoMa can be denied visas to USA.
Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations
1. Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)
2. Abu Sayyaf Group
3. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
4. Al-Shabaab
5. Ansar al-Islam
6. Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
7. Asbat al-Ansar
8. Aum Shinrikyo
9. Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
10. Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (CPP/NPA)
11. Continuity Irish Republican Army
12. Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group)
13. HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement)
14. Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B)
15. Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM)
16. Hizballah (Party of God)
17. Islamic Jihad Group
18. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
19. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) (Army of Mohammed)
20. Jemaah Islamiya organization (JI)
21. Kahane Chai (Kach)
22. Kata’ib Hizballah
23. Kongra-Gel (KGK, formerly Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, KADEK)
24. Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT) (Army of the Righteous)
25. Lashkar i Jhangvi
26. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
27. Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)
28. Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM)
29. Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK)
30. National Liberation Army (ELN)
31. Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)
32. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
33. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLF)
34. PFLP-General Command (PFLP-GC)
35. Tanzim Qa’idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (QJBR) (al-Qaida in Iraq) (formerly Jama’at al-Tawhid wa’al-Jihad, JTJ, al-Zarqawi Network)
36. al-Qa’ida
37. al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
38. al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly GSPC)
39. Real IRA
40. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
41. Revolutionary Organization 17 November
42. Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C)
43. Revolutionary Struggle
44. Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso, SL)
45. United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)
Yeah, Joma goes to live off the welfare system of a capitalist country. He’s a firebrand alright, burning up Dutch taxes. That’s how Joma’s revolution works – let others pay the tab.
And others pay with their lives. I have a classmate who went to UP and now is up in the mountains and even got his brother to join the NPA. What a waste of talent since he was one of the smartest guys in the class and the shame he brought to his family, his mom being a school teacher at that.
rosa,
your former classmate is not smart
He was. He went to UP right? :-)
All he puffs out now is hot air…
Funny turn of events, isn’t it? Evil Marcos and his evil military tied this man in his bed in solitary confinement along with his cohorts and kept him in jail for years. Guess who freed him. Now, if we go by the arguments of various human rights violations victims fighting for compensation from the Marcos family, he’s certainly one of those of could legitimately claim reparations for violation of his human rights. Eat your heart out,people, he would be receiving his share of the million dollars from Marcos’ hidden wealth in no time.
When Cory died, did you miss Joma’s message?
Here:
http://www.josemariasison.org/jumi02/inps/Coryexceprel.htm
A very helpful link, Ding. Thanks.
You wonder: why this protectiveness for each other? As much as I know, this was part of a tale imagined by a kangaroo court. I heard it only now told by Joma himself. Is he weaving some tale he could use much later.
I don’t think so. Noynoy should have learned his lessons already and I think the lesson is pretty telling. A bullet is still lodge inside his body somewhere in his neck, and that’s enough evidence to learn some hard lesson to ponder upon already. Playing with a “firebrand” is playing with fire…bad for the health.
I don’t know. I am puzzling over this so-called “friendship” between Joma and the Aquinos. Joma, a hardcore communist, forging alliance with a family of feudal landlords? They would be ideological enemies after each other’s throat.
ricelander,
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, remember?
I remember that very well, tranquil: they forged alliance to fight a dictator. Very well. Yet their alliance seems to have started much earlier. Sison first visited the Aquino household in 1967 as Sison himself said, and became a frequent visitor since. That was two years yet into Marcos’ first term and five long years away before the declaration of Martial Law when Marcos assumed one-man rule! Then several months later, it was Ninoy himself facilitating the meeting of Sison with Dante Buscayno. Some things do not quite connect, that’s all.
The Cojuangcos are the feudal landlords even at that time, and maybe the Aquinos not, but not sure. Were they?
Bert, try Wikipedia.
rice,
Ninoy is a romantic. Perhaps in the mold of Tolstoy or Che Guevara or Victor Hugo. History is replete with such men. Major socio-political changes were initiated by men who were way up in the totem pole of economic class, abandons it and fights the fight of the masses. St. Paul, Gandhi, Marx…
Joma’s sidekick, Luis, is also a landed oligarch from Negros.
Thanks, ricelander. The Aquinos were landlords alright way back then. But Ninoy was deep into politics pala at a very young age, becoming governor of Tarlac at age 22. It could be that his heart was too involved in his politics rather than in his family ties, so not too surprising for something of that sort of two political opposite poles connecting. It happened, you know. History is replete with such political love stories.
Just pure speculation on my part, this thing is just as puzzling to me as to you.
He says he too was fighting the dictatorship.
But the commonality ends there.
Cory fought to restore democracy.
Joma wanted, and still wants to, install a COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP.
I respect Prof. Jose Maria Sison. He has his ideology; he fought for it in his entire life; and he suffered. And, was exiled because of it. Communism is just a way of thinking. The first Christians in Jerusalem were the first Communists. They sold all they have, and had shared what they have with each other. Read the Christian Bible: Acts of the Apostles. Honestly, I did not and cannot agree with the Communist ideology.
To call a “shovel” a dirty “shovel”: We are not a Democracy. We are a Feudal Oligarchy masquerading as a Democracy. This is the sentiment of Prof. Jo Ma Sison. It depends on your Point of View. If you are an Oligarch or one of those rich people. You will call our system of government “Democracy”. If you are one living around the garbage dumps
or under the bridge, or in shanties along the river banks putrid with all kinds of waste. You will never call our government “Democracy”. If you are one of those suffering peasants, from the Hacienda Luisita of Noynoy Aquino. I believe, you will never accept you are living in “Democracy.
Let us not demonize, Prof. Sison. He is entitled to his beliefs and ideology. Let us respect his decision to live and fight for it.
Democracy as defined by President Abrahan Lincoln is: “For the people, of the people, and by the people.” You can see the wide chasm from our reality, of this definition to the too many poor we have in our country. Peasant struggling to own their own lands. And OFWs working at starvation wages in foreign countries. Also, just the lack of opportunities offered in our country. Family Dynasties prevalent in our political system.
Dude, know what I mean?
Joma was NOT exiled.
Problem is, Joma isn’t even a real ‘communist’.
And for someone who has much time in his hands, his academic and intellectual output is pathetic and mediocre.
Jusme, he can’t even write a decent manifesto…how do you expect him to ‘fight’ for it.
Did anyone not notice that he is not even in the radar of the Euro socialists and ‘communists’ (if any remain).
Buti pa si Walden Bello, bestselling and prolific author.
Joma is just a welfare scum cheating the Dutch Taxpayers…buti sana kung sulit ‘investment’ nila sa kanya, hindi naman. Ang latest creative output niya ay ang pagkekembot ng pwet with Ara Mina.
“Now, if we go by the arguments of various human rights violations victims fighting for compensation from the Marcos family, he’s certainly one of those of could legitimately claim reparations for violation of his human rights. Eat your heart out,people, he would be receiving his share of the million dollars from Marcos’ hidden wealth in no time.”-ricelander
Right. ‘If we go by the arguments of various human rights violation victims’ we should be paying compensations and reparations to human right violation victims under the Cory administration, under the Ramos administration, under the Erap administration and under the PGMA administration. That is, assuming that presidents after Marcos have their own versions of what we called “hidden wealth”, which I doubt they have, since Marcos is the “only” “evil one” and the rest are saints. Especially PGMA. Ask rego and Bencard.
Hehe Bert, you’re getting the hang of it. Now with regards to “hidden wealth”, if you use the court’s formula for determining how much Marcos truly owned, lahat yan meron, sobra-sobra. How did they do it on Marcos? Eto lang ang annual salary mo simula pa you joined the government i-times mo with the years you were in government, there; anuman ang sobra niyan ill-gotten yan. Pero sandali lang lumalayo na masyado hehe sori MB.
Speaker: The Question is, That this House has no Confidence in the present Government.
[pointing to President GMA] Madam President!
President GMA:
Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is of course the right and duty of the loyal Opposition to challenge the position of the Government of the day. It is also their right to test the Confidence of this House in the Government, if they think the circumstances warrant it. I make no complaint about that.
But when our critics’ windy rhetoric has blown away, what are their real reasons for bringing this motion before the House, because there were no alternative policies, only a lot of disjointed, opaque words.
They can’t be complaining about the Philippines’ political standing, for that is deservedly high, not least because of the recently concluded, successful automated elections—the first for this country, and achieved only with the determined support of this Administration. They can’t be complaining about the country’s finances. We are a net creditor to the world in 2009, something which has not happened since the start of the Third Republic. And they can’t be complaining about this Government’s consistent economic policies—whose achievements were demonstrated during the recent financial crisis, when the Philippines became one of the highest-growing countries in Asia while our neighbors suffered through a recession.
The critics’ real reason is the perception of corruption and incompetence that pervades all media coverage over the Administration, a perception which is not based on fact but on opinion, based not on dispassionate analysis but on hateful emotion. It is a perception that better suits the record of the winning candidates in the last election for President and Vice President: one who has no record to speak of, the other, while in office, has simply stayed too long and earned too much—precious little competence and integrity there.
The real issue to be decided, by Members of this House, is how best to build on the achievements of this decade—how to carry this Government’s policies through to the next—how to prevent the fall of our political leadership unto the lap of a certain television personality.
Mr. Speaker, nine years ago, we rescued the Philippines from the parlous state to which our predecessor had brought it. I remind this House, that under President Estrada, this country had come to such a pass, that the exchange rate had gone to 55 Pesos to the Dollar, interest rates went through the roof, and the hope of Philippines 2000 had been extinguished; where a fragile political environment and a bankrupt government had resulted in the ouster of a corrupt President. The Arroyo Administration has changed all that.
Once again, the Filipino people can turn their hopes to a country that is admired for its economic performance compared to the rest of the world, and to a government that has made it all possible.
We have done it by improving our infrastructure: increasing farm-to-market roads by 6 times to nearly 18,000 kilometers, building one-and-a-half-times the length of roads built during the three previous Administrations combined, instituting the roll-on-roll-off nautical highway, and widening electrification from 80.1% to 99.39% of rural barangays.
We’ve done it by investing in education: 100,000 new classrooms built in this Administration, improving classroom-to-students ratio from 1:60 to 1:39 in primary school, and textbook-to-student ratio has gone up from 1:5 to 1:1 in many subjects in elementary and high school.
And we’ve done it by caring for social development: 11 million beneficiaries of food-for-school program, which offers incentives for young pupils to stay in school; and 1 million household beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program, which provide additional incentives for educating poor children.
Mr. Speaker, our stewardship of the public finances has been better than that of any Government for over fifty years. Using funds raised from the EVAT, we have been able to repay debt and improve infrastructure, and the resulting success of the entire economy can be talked about for years to come: the doubling of GDP per capita from the year 2000 to 2009, the halving of inflation and foreign debt-to-GDP ratio, and the tripling of Gross International Reserves. There have been fourteen million more jobs since 2000, and PhilHealth membership has been widened from 30 million to nearly 84 million people, or almost the entire population of the Philippines.
That is the record of nine-and-a-half years of the Arroyo Administration, and Arroyo policies. Mr. Speaker, all these are grounds for congratulation, not censure, least of all from the Members of the Opposition, who have no alternative policies.
Mr. Speaker, over the past nine years, this Government has had a clear and unwavering vision of the future of our democracy, and of the Filipino people’s role in it. It is a vision which stems from our own deep-seated attachment to Constitutional democracy, and this Government’s commitment to economic liberty, to enterprise, to competition, and to the free-market economy.
The fact is that, more than any previous Government, we have fought for charter change as the most basic way to enhance our competitiveness compared to other countries, which allow for the free competition of foreign entities with local businesses. For us, part of the purpose of the government is to demolish trade barriers and unfair subsidies so we can all benefit from the expansion of trade both within Asia and with the outside world, particularly those small and medium enterprises so crucial for job creation. It wouldn’t help them for our economy to continue to be dominated by Spanish-era conglomerates, headed by Spanish families, linked by a colonial old boys’ network; or for the bureaucracy to be concentrated in the capital city, far removed from the life of the rural peasantry. Our people deserve a country where there’s room for their growing sense of nationhood, and a place to decide their own destiny after a lifetime of deprivation.
Are we then to be censured for standing up for a free and open society through a free and open economy? No, Mr. Speaker, our policies are in line with the best interests of the Filipino people, and we shall not be censured for what is thoroughly right.
Despite the failure of our initiative, Mr. Speaker, we have never hesitated to fight for development and for the Constitution in other ways, particularly in the area of peace and security. This Government has received no thanks for its imposition of martial law in the aftermath of the event known as the Maguindanao massacre. Yet it was our swift action which enabled the Army and the Marines to arrest the Ampatuan family members responsible for the massacre, and which allowed the Commission on Human Rights to collect evidence without being disturbed by lawless elements.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, our critics have been quicker to point out the definition of civil war and rebellion which should, they said, have guided the imposition of military rule. Yet at the same time they called for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended and the Ampatuans to be arrested first and then charged later. The only difference between our action and their proposed action was that theirs was not called martial law -— it was just martial law by another name.
Clearly our critics want to prevent a replay of the events of the 1970s, when most of them came of age and and reached political maturity. But such is our forward-looking view of our society, of which 75 percent were born after martial law, that we do not believe it is right to take revenge upon the past by compromising our future. The previous generation might have failed in stopping the institution of a dictatorship, but it does not mean that this generation must fail as well.
Not for us this blind replaying of our past, this jaundiced reading of our history. Ours is a larger vision of our democracy, where Filipinos cooperate more and more closely to the defense of the Constitution.
Should we be censured for our strength, or the critics for their weakness? Surely the vigor of our Constitution has been strengthened more by our action than by any second-guessing of our critics. I have no doubt that the people of this country will willingly entrust their security in the future to a strong government that protects them rather than to socialists and academicians who put little faith in our Constitution and ascribe little hope to our Nation.
And we realize our hope, Mr. Speaker, in the conduct of future elections in this country. Since time immemorial, we as a Nation have desired automation for our elections, variously to improve the process of vote-counting and canvassing, and to minimize the incidence of cheating. Many attempts have been made to automate nation-wide elections, but none has succeeded until this year.
Despite the obvious success, a lot of voices, mostly of those who lost, have been raised to question the validity of the results. We have been here before, when the candidate who was leading the official count was also the one who had been leading in the pre-election surveys, in the exit polls, in NAMFREL counts, in the tallies by media organizations, and in the predictions of fortune-tellers. Independent foreign observers also said that while there had been irregularities, they were sufficiently few in number to have affected the results of the elections. Back then, the losing candidate made the same claims of “trending.”
Nobody believed that candidate, who later died an unhappy man, yet the following year someone let out a digital recording of a conversation between me and a Comelec Commissioner, ostensibly proving the existence of cheating. Never mind the evidence of all those surveys and independent observations, never mind that you could have given all the votes of Maguindanao to the losing candidate and he would hardly have made a dent in the one-million-vote lead: the allegation was believed nonetheless.
Twice in my time as President, we have sent our forces to discipline rouge soldiers who had staged a coup d’état against the legitimate government—both in the Oakwood mutiny and in February 2006, and to maintain order in street rallies that were led and paid for by those who, too cowardly to suffer the heat of the noonday sun in support of their politics, or to share the stench of their people on the ground, perverted the meaning of the people power revolution.
To those who have never had to take such decisions, may I say to them, that they are taken with a heavy heart, in the knowledge of the manifold dangers, but with tremendous pride in the professionalism and courage of our Armed Forces. But there is something else which one feels as well, Mr. Speaker. That is a sense of this country’s destiny, from nearly a century of history and experience, which ensure that the Filipino will always fight for his Christian, constitutional and democratic way of life.
It is because we in this Administration have never flinched from difficult decisions, that this House, and this country, can have Confidence in this Government today.
Joma’s views are simply outdated and out-of-touch. As I wrote in my blog a few weeks before the elections, I condemned the decision of the leadership to align with trapos and I got a smacking denunciation from youth groups who don’t know what they are talking about.
Anyway, I don’t believe that a conspiracy exists between the Aquinos and the Arroyos. Yes, probably the CIA is involved here. And yes, the elections might have simply been manipulated. But, I simply do not believe that the manipulation benefitted Aquino more than Villar. Fact is, I believe that Villar benefitted much from the elections than Noy.
Consider—do you believe 5 million Pinoys actually believe and supported Villar’s campaign rhetoric? To my calculation, Villar’s numbers is as dismal as 2 million. That’s as far as he can get, what with the electorate tired and angry about his billion peso spending and his pretensions. There’s always a limit to what you can claim in the public sphere.
Command votes of the NPA? It has all diminished into thin air. As I predicted in my blog, the influence of the CPP-NPA-NDF will decrease post-election. This is another erroneous decision. I don’t know if they did this with their eyes open or just their mouths agape, what with all that gold from Villar’s vault.
Still, I respect Joma–the old one, I mean, not this Joma who pretends to know what’s happening.