Philippine Leftist Alliance Organizes for ’87 Elections

A broad alliance of leftist groups claiming a nationwide membership of 2 million announced plans today to form a political party and field candidates in next year’s local and legislative elections.

At least 15 leaders of the group, called Bayan (Country), appeared at a news conference to announce plans to contest seats in elections planned for early next year by the government of President Corazon Aquino.

It will be the first time since the Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946 that a left-wing party has contested an election.

One of the leaders of the new party is Bernabe Buscayno, 44, former chief of the communist New People’s Army, who was released by Aquino shortly after the military-backed civilian revolt last February that ousted President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Buscayno founded the NPA, the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines, in the spring of 1969 with a handful of men. He was jailed by Marcos for nine years, but it did not stop the NPA from growing into a significant force with 17,000 regulars.

Buscayno said the Partido ng Bayan (People’s Party) is a “party for the masses” and has nothing to do with the Communist Party.

“This is a new political party that seeks to end the domination of traditional parties ruled by the elite,” he said. “However, we are not limiting our struggle to elections. The new party is open to other forms of protest, like marches and demonstrations.”

Bayan, whose members come from the ranks of peasant, worker, youth, professional and religious groups, boycotted the fraud-tainted Feb. 7 presidential election that culminated in the revolt that swept Aquino into the presidency Feb. 25.

“We would like to point out that the Partido ng Bayan is being set up not necessarily as a reflection of an admission that it took a wrong position in the snap presidential election,” Bayan spokesman Joe Castro said.

“Instead, it is in recognition of the political situation that has arisen from the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship and the installation of a more democratic government . . ,” Castro said.

A 48-member commission is drafting a new constitution for submission to a plebiscite late this year. If approved, elections for provincial and town officials and a bicameral Congress will be held in March or April.