Brosas: NTF-ELCAC’s bid to disqualify Gabriela as party-list is baseless

House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas on Tuesday testified before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to defend Gabriela's status as a legitimate party-list organization.

Brosas, in a statement, said she took the witness stand in the disqualification case filed in 2021 by the state-run National Task Force Against Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which accused Gabriela of links to communist rebels.

"We strongly condemn the baseless disqualification case filed by NTF-ELCAC against our party-list. This red-tagging arm of the government seeks to not only to cancel our registration but disenfranchise the marginalized women and sectors that we represent," Brosas said.

The lawmaker said that in the last 22 years, the Gabriela Women's Party has authored pro-women and pro-poor legislations—including the Expanded Maternity Leave, the Occupational Safety and Health Law, amendments to the Anti-Rape Law, the Safe Spaces Act, and the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Law—and pushed for pro-worker bills, including the National Minimum Wage bill and the P750 across-the-board wage increase bill.

"No amount of harassment can erase the programs and services we have championed and the laws we have fought for. We firmly believe that this is a fabricated case by the NTF-ELCAC as a response to our unwavering stance in defending human rights and our strong opposition to the anti-poor and anti-people programs," Brosas said.

"Despite these attempts to silence us, we will continue to amplify the voices of women and marginalized sectors. Hindi rin magiging hadlang ang kasong ito sa aming pagrerehistro ng panawagan ng mamamayan lalo na sa nalalapit na 2024 budget deliberations," she added.

(This case will not be a roadblock in our continuing to champion the Filipino people's calls, especially during the upcoming 2024 budget deliberations.) 

Brosas also called on the Marcos administration to abolish the NTF-ELCAC and realign its budget to basic social services.

“We cannot allow this notorious red-tagging agency to get another billion-peso budget allocation at the expense of marginalized women which they seek to disenfranchise," she added.

Gabriela Women's Party, Kabataan Partylist, and other organizations also staged a protest in front of the Comelec as the poll body deliberated on the petition filed by the NTF-ELCAC to cancel the registration of the progressive party-list groups.

Brosas said that the NTF-ELCAC's petition against Gabriela’s registration as party-list dates back to 2019.

A party-list nominee "must either belong to the sector represented, or have a track record of advocacy for such sector," according to the 2013  Supreme Court ruling in Atong Paglaum v. Comelec. — BM, GMA Integrated News