ORGANIZATIONAL cracks continue to hound the ‘Makabayan Bloc’ in Congress and in the Philippine mass movement that it has dominated since the Marcos years after a provincial chapter of the ‘Gabriela Women’s Party’ (GWB) decided to ‘secede’ from the militant women’s group this Monday, March 8, 2021.
In a simple ceremony cum ‘community consultation’ held at the Bagac Central School in Bagac, Bataan province, the entire chapter of Gabriela, represented in Congress by Rep. France Castro, announced its “disaffiliation” from the group.
Gabriela is among the partylists under the Makabayan Bloc, whose composition is believed to be all front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The chapter’s separation is made more significant as March 8 is also celebrated as ‘National Women’s Month.’
Sources said the occasion is also to “pre-empt” the “pressure” being applied to the chapter by Gabriela’s national council, which is even planning to visit Bagac to prevent the planned breakaway that has been in the minds of chapter officers for some time now.
From recent developments, sources said the chapter’s members are now of the opinion that Gabriela is indeed a CPP-front organization, which was affirmed as far back as 1987 by CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison.
GWP is also allegedly not giving any “support” to the chapter.
This would be the second time in less than 3 months that a local chapter has seceded from the Makabayan Bloc, following the decision last January 21, 2021, of the National Council of the union at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to also secede from COURAGE (Confederation for the Advancement and Unity of Government Employees).
Only 3 of the 17 chapter-presidents of the ‘Social Welfare Employees Association of the Philippines’ (SWEAP) voted to remain with COURAGE during their meeting.
COURAGE is another suspected front created by the CPP focused in organizing government departments and agencies. Current Bayan Muna representative, Ferdinand Gaite, was former national president of the group.
Incidentally, during police operations in Calabarzon last March 4, 2021 and March 7, 2021, two of those arrested by the police are officers of COURAGE (see related article in this issue).
Aside from organizational break-up, Gabriela is also facing possible removal from the list of accredited partylist groups by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The poll body’s Second Division under Commissioner Socorro Inting last November 27, 2020, already ruled that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has the “legal standing” to question Gabriela’s continued inclusion in the Comelec’s list of accredited partylist, or those allowed to participate in the country’s elections under the partylist system.
In 2019, the task force petitioned the Comelec to remove Gabriela after getting documents confirming that it has been receiving substantial foreign funding, which is not allowed under the Omnibus Election Code.
One of these documents disclosed that between 2012 to 2016, Gabriela was a beneficiary of funding assistance from the Belgian government amounting to some P22.7 million.
Inting’s ruling has paved the way for a more substantive discussion on the issues raised by the task force against Gabriela and a ruling is being expected to be released any time now.
Pinoy Exposé further learned that boosting the Bagac chapter’s being convinced that Gabriela is a CPP front was the recent surrender of two former members of the ‘New People’s Army’ (NPA), namely, Jovellita Peronce ‘Ka Lina’ Yandan and, Lolita Pelagio ‘Ka Emet’ Valdez, who both admitted to being members of Gabriela in Bataan before ending up as NPA fighters.
Yandan is a previous ‘medical officer’ of the NPA and a member of its dreaded “hit squad,” the ‘SPARU’ (Special Partisan Unit) tasked to eliminate those in the NPA’s “hit list.”
Valdez, on the other hand, ended up as the finance officer of ‘Armed Propaganda Unit’ (SYP) of the NPA in the province.
Monday’s occasion, which was organized by the regional task group of the NTF-ELCAC, was also graced by Region 3 police director, PB/Gen. Valeriano ‘Val’ de Leon, 7TH Infantry Division commander, M/Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr., task force spokesperson and communications undersecretary Loraine Badoy and other provincial and regional government officials.