THE ruling of the Commission on Election (Comelec) on their petition for party accreditation in the 2010 national elections will not deter the members of the Magdalo group from pushing through their electoral bids next year.

Magdalo Para sa Pagbabago spokesman Francisco Ashley Acedillo said the recent Comelec decision junking their petition for registration and accreditation as a political party will not hinder their plan to run in next year's election.

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“If the Commission still denies our petition, our members who are running in national and local positions will continue their political plans,” Acedillo said.

The former Air Force 1st Lieutenant, who participated in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, is himself running for Cebu City's 2nd Congressional District.

The group has also endorsed the Senatorial bid of detained former Scout Ranger regiment commander, Brigadier General Danilo Lim and Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin.

The two are among the military officers facing charges for their alleged participation in the February 2006 attempt to overthrow the Arroyo administration.

Lim was included in the senatorial line-up of the United Opposition (UNO) under former president Joseph Estrada while reports said Querubin will be in the slate of the Nacionalista Party (NP) of Senator Manuel Villar.

Other Magdalo members running for elective positions in 2010 are Navy Lieutenant Sergeant James Layug for the 2nd congressional district of Taguig city and Army Captain Dante Langkit for the lone district of Kalinga province.

Marine Captain Gary Alejano meanwhile has been endorsed as candidate for mayor of the city of Sipalay in Negros Occidental.

The group’s former spokesman and now chairman, former Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, run and won a seat in the Senate in the 2007 mid-term election despite lacking resources and in detention.

Acedillo said at present they are concentrating on reversing the poll body's decision by filing a motion for reconsideration.

Early this week, the Comelec second division, headed by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, rejected the political party's petition for registration and accreditation of the Magdalo, citing its members’ involvement in the “2003 mutiny at the Oakwood Premier Apartments in Makati City.”

In a six-page resolution promulgated on October 26, the poll body said: “The principal founders of the Magdalo para sa Pagbabago Party remain unrepentant and harbor the propensity to engage in another illegal adventure similar to the failed 2003 Oakwood mutiny, should they again fail to achieve their goal – this time with the use of the political party they are now applying for accreditation.”

The ruling also stated the political party may only be a means “to recruit and indoctrinate disciplined followers who may become their blind followers”

The group said the poll body has acted “unfairly” in its decision and said it was based on “mere speculation and baseless.”

“The Comelec resolution denying our accreditation violated our constitutional right to presumption of innocence. The resolution is not based on evidence but on pure conjecture and presuppositions,” Acedillo said.

They also accused the Comelec of “preempting" the Makati Regional Trial Court, which is currently trying their coup d' etat case.

The Comelec resolution jumped at the conclusion that the founders of the Magdalo “employed violence and ‘use(d) unlawful means’ and in the process defied the laws of organized society’ during the Oakwood incident," he said.

At the same time, Acedillo explained that Magdalo was not formed to “recruit and indoctrinate disciplined followers who may become their blind followers" as claimed by the resolution.

“If (that) is the desire of Magdalo, we would not go to the trouble of filing a petition for accreditation with the Comelec. We would very well have achieved this purpose by forming even an informal group or a secret or clandestine organization and secretly recruit people," he said.

Acedillo said it is in fact in the Comelec's “best interest" to “encourage" the Magdalo group to join the mainstream of Filipino society and allow it to participate in the democratic process instead of “isolating" them.

He stressed that of the group's 40,000 members divided into 375 chapters nationwide, only 10 percent are former military officers.

Described as a “political and social movement advocating reform and fighting corruption," the Magdalo Para sa Pagbabago was founded by 15 former junior military officers including Trillanes.

The group has an eight-point platform namely, selfless service to God and to nation, importance of family, leadership by example, a government of laws, genuine economic development program, environment protection, political maturity and social change. (AH/Sunnex)