Party pushes poll boycott

THE ANG Kapatiran Party is calling on the Filipino electorate to boycott the 2016 elections owing to what it calls the corruption-stained political system that breeds dynasties, celebrity politics and personality-based polls.

The small Catholic lay-based party, which mounted unsuccessful presidential and senatorial bids in two previous elections, yesterday launched a new campaign, this time to stop registered voters from participating in next year’s polls.

The intention of party leaders is to bring down the voter turnout to as low as 25 percent from the 75-percent participation in the 2013 and 2010 elections.

A significantly lower voter turnout, they said, would be seen as a “manifestation of outrage and loss of confidence in the political system,” as well as a clamor for the incoming administration to gather its resolve and pave the way for a true “system change.”

The objective is to usher in a shift to a parliamentary-federal form of government from the presidential system, and to realize important provisions in the Constitution that have not been enacted, including the prohibition on political dynasties, and a freedom of information law.

Kapatiran president Norman Cabrera also clarified that the party never sanctioned its members, Rizalito David and Albert Alba, to run for President and Vice President, respectively, same with the six others now seeking a Senate seat.

“The Kapatiran Party, first and foremost, has decided officially not to field candidates in 2016. In fact, we did not submit the names and specimen signatures required by the Comelec,” Cabrera said at the launch of the campaign at Club Filipino in San Juan City.

“I anticipate that while Rizalito David and Albert Alba filed their candidacy under Kapatiran, they will eventually be labeled as independents,” Cabrera said.

David, who also ran for senator in 2013, was the first to question the citizenship of presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe in a petition still pending in the Senate Electoral Tribunal.

His petition was similarly not authorized by Kapatiran.

Nandy Pacheco, the founder of Kapatiran, said power and greed, instead of self-sacrificing service, had become the operative norms of conduct in the political system in the Philippines.