Piñol blasts party-list groups derailing his bid

KIDAPAWAN CITY — Tit-for-tat?

Re-electionist North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol branded as "anti-people" party-list groups campaigning against him.

This, as he vowed to work for their defeat in his bailiwicks for being alleged fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The national chairman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas earlier called Piñol, known for his hardline stance against the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a "monster" after the governor, in radio interviews, accused party-list groups Gabriela, Anak Bayan, Bayan Muna and Anak Pawis of having links with the CPP-NPA.

Piñol lashed at the party-list groups for prodding North Cotabato voters not to elect him. To disprove their alleged links with the CPP-NPA, he urged them to issue a written rejection of the communist movement.

"If these organizations can do that and condemn the CPP-NPA for its involvement in the killings of innocent people, for mulcting ‘revolutionary taxes’ from poor farmers not only in North Cotabato but elsewhere in the country, I will tell my constituents to vote for (them)," said Piñol, chairman of the provincial peace and order council.

Local officials here and in surrounding towns said more groups have joined Piñol’s campaign after he, like National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, branded several party-list groups as alleged CPP-NPA fronts.

They said it is for Piñol’s hardline policy against the MILF and the CPP-NPA that provincial folk are supporting his re-election.

According to sources in the multisectoral provincial peace and order council, Piñol’s unrelenting campaign against the communist rebels has weakened their taxation and other activities in North Cotabato in the last five years.

Influential members of North Cotabato’s business community said they are keen on voting for Piñol, convinced that he would succeed in working out the staging of the Philippine-US Balikatan war exercises in the province.

"It would be good for our economy. It would also augur well for our efforts to convert the province into an ecotourism zone," a prominent Chinese-Filipino businessman, who asked not to be identified, told The STAR.

Piñol, who belongs to the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats), is confident that President Arroyo will trounce her rivals in North Cotabato during the May 10 elections.

"It is by voting for President Arroyo that we can thank her for having developed once hostile territories in the province into peace zones, where rebel forces now live peacefully as farmers," he said.