MAKABAYAN-endorsed candidate for Iloilo City councilor harassed in Iloilo City, Philippines

Two weeks before the elections, Jose Reynaldo “Jory” Porquia who is running for a seat in the city council of Iloilo City received two poison-pen letters signed by a certain  Ramon Socrates Ledesma of  Western Visayas Advocates for Peace.  One of the letters dated April 26, 2010 contains the following message:  “It seems that you are not truthful and serious in serving the public.  We found out that you continue your alliance with the enemies of democracy, progress and peace-the CPP-NPA-NDF and its Partylists.  Your alliance with them is an admission that you are one of them who adheres to the non sense of communism.  WITH THIS LETTER IS A BLACK RIBBON THAT WILL REMIND YOU THAT YOUR LIFE, AS WELL AS YOUR FAMILY, IS ONLY A PRIVILEGE.  IF DEATH BECOMES YOU, MAY YOU REST IN PEACE.”  It can be recalled that this is exactly the content of the letter received by KABATAAN Partylist 3rd nominee Atty. Katrina Castillo and the subject of UA No: 2010-04-03.

The second letter suggests that Jory Porquia ignored the warning by continuing his alliance with the CPP-NPA and its Partylists, thus he is now considered an enemy of democracy, and it ended with the veiled threat of “the rest is up to us.”

The MAKABAYAN Coalition strongly believes that the threat and intimidation of its members and volunteers in several parts of the country are state-sponsored as evidenced by the discovery of a vehicle with plate number PJF 185, used by the people distributing black propaganda materials against the coalition and its members in Davao City in Mindanao, as registered under the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency or NICA, which is headed by National Security Adviser and presently the Secretary of National Defense, Mr. Norberto Gonzales.