SYDNEY – This morning, Filipinos around the world awoke to news that Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Junior, son of the ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is projected to win the Philippine Presidential Election, said a statement by Ms Patricia Arcilla of the orgIsation Anakbayan Sydney
Meanwhile, allegations of broken ballot counting machines in multiple voting precincts are mounting—as are reports that millions of registered voters are being turned away from the polls after hours of waiting in line to cast their vote.
The international community must condemn in the fullest terms this denial of the basic democratic right to vote and refuse to recognise a new Philippine president until allegations of electoral fraud, failure, and disenfranchisement are fully addressed. Ms. Arcilla said.
The election of Bong Bong Marcos and his VP Sara Duterte, daughter of current strongman president Rodrigo Duterte, is not a triumph of democracy but a triumph of disinformation. A strategic campaign of revisionism and misinformation, waged largely across social media, has obscured the brutality of life in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos Sr and the extent of suffering the Filipino people endured, the statement said.
A Marcos returning to power is an affront to the memory of the 3,257 killed, 35,000 tortured, 77 ‘disappeared’, and 70,000 incarcerated under the first Marcos regime in the 1980s.
BAYAN Australia, Migrante NSW, Anakbayan Sydney, and other members of the Sydney Filipino community follow in their footsteps of resistance and say never again to martial law. We:
- CALL ON the Australian Government to refuse to recognise a new Philippine President until all allegations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement are addressed;
- DEMAND an end to Australian military aid in the Philippines, where it is used to facilitate state murders of activists, left-wing political dissidents, trade unionists, and Indigenous people; and
- URGE all who stand for peace, democracy, and justice for victims of martial law and state violence to join us in solidarity tonight for a snap action and prayer vigil in Sydney
Patricia Arcilla (Anakbayan Sydney) 0401 923 644