Comelec rejects ‘with finality’ Gabriela petition vs. NTF-ELCAC

THE Second Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rejected “with finality” the motion for reconsideration filed by the ‘Gabriela’ women’s group seeking to disqualify the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as a petitioner in a case  to remove Gabriela from the list of the poll body’s accredit partylist groups.

The decision, under special proceedings (SPP) 19-007, was formalized by the Second Division under presiding commissioner, Socorro Inting, during a ‘zoom hearing’ last Thursday, January 14, 2021, a day after issuing a decision denying the appeal of Gabriela.

The NTF-ELCAC is being represented in the petition by lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), while Gabriela is being represented by Atty. Alnie Foja and Atty. Frank Lloyd Tiongson from the Foja Law Office.

The Second Division first rejected Gabriela’s petition in a ruling last November 24, 2020, by ruling that the NTF-ELCAC has the ‘legal standing’ to file its petition against the group.

In affirming its earlier ruling, the poll body said Gabriela has not presented new evidence in support of its appeal.

Gabriela is accused by the government of being among the many ‘front organizations’ of the Communist Party of the Philippines. As early as 1987, Gabriela was specifically named by CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison, as one of those comprising the party’s “legal democratic forces” in the Philippines in the course of a speech he delivered in Belgium.

On the other hand, the task force was created by virtue of EO 70, signed by Pres. Duterte on December 4, 2018, with a mandate to finally end the 52-year, “armed struggle” being pursued by the CPP thru a ‘whole of nation/whole of government’ strategy.

The task force was prompted to petition the Comelec in May 2019, after the midterm elections, to delist Gabriela from the partylist system after uncovering documents showing it has been soliciting foreign funding, which is not allowed under the country’s election rules.

Testimonies from former fighters of the ‘New People’s Army,’ (NPA), the armed group of the CPP, also bared that Gabriela is actively engaged in the CPP-NPA’s violent efforts to bring down the government, which is a violation of the Philippine Constitution.

With the finality of its decision, the poll body is now expected to proceed with the more substantial issue of expelling Gabriela, Gabriela Inc., and, the General Assembly of Women for Reforms (GAWR) from the partylist system based on the evidence presented by the NTF-ELCAC in support of Section 8, Rule 32 of the Comelec’s Rules of Procedures.

Section 8 empowers the Comelec to, ‘motu propio,’ cancel the registration of any political party, coalition of political parties or organizations under the partylist system after due process.