2016 elections won’t improve Filipinos’ lives—CPP

LUCENA CITY, Quezon —The Communist Party of the Philippines expressed pessimism Friday that the lives of Filipinos could change for the better under a new government after the 2016 elections.

In its 46th founding anniversary statement, the CPP said it expected that corruption under the Aquino administration, despite its much-vaunted “tuwid na daan” (straight path) policy, would be further exposed and would intensify as the next elections neared.

“So far, however, the self-proclaimed presidential candidates do not offer any assurance that there will be any significant change in the character of the elections and in the ruling system,” the CPP said.

The communist group also predicted that the coming elections would be “preconditioned in the main by the big campaign financiers, the political dynasties, use of government resources and manipulation of the automated electoral system.”

Despite the perceived flaws of the country’s electoral system, the CPP said it intended to use the elections as an opportunity to raise public awareness of issues and to promote a program to attain a just and lasting peace.

The CPP said the most patriotic and progressive parties and candidates were in a better position to garner more seats in local governments and the legislature.

A recent Social Weather Stations survey showed that 37 percent of 1,800 respondents picked Vice President Jejomar Binay as the next president, 21 percent preferred Sen. Grace Poe and 19 percent chose Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

Binay has openly declared his presidential candidacy in 2016 under the United Nationalist Alliance while Roxas has been the presumptive presidential candidate of the ruling Liberal Party.

Poe has said she was not interested in running for higher office in 2016 as she was focused on her current work in the Senate.

Poe is an independent but ran as a guest candidate of LP in the 2013 senatorial elections, finishing first place despite being a first-timer in politics.

In the 2010 election, CPP founder Jose Maria Sison batted for then Nacionalista Party standard bearer Manny Villar.

Sison viewed Villar’s program of government as the better option than that of the LP team of then Senator Aquino and his then running mate, Roxas, whom the top communist leader called “rabid exponents” of US-dictated policies.

Despite being a consistent frontrunner in the surveys, Villar placed only third in the presidential race behind Aquino and former President Joseph Estrada.