The Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan (LAB), or People’s League for Science, one of the 18 member organizations of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, criticized the regime’s upcoming National Elections in May, 2025, as a means to maintain the semicolonial and semifeudal social system in the Philippines.

According to LAB, the ruling US-Marcos regime clearly has the upper hand, wielding many weapons to rig the elections. One of them is the FASTrac or Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count, which is just a rehash of the Automated Election System (AES) instituted by law in 1997 and amended in 2007.

With the AES, the imperialist US has tightened its grip on the reactionary elections in the Philippines by being in control of the supply, use, and management of the necessary technology and machinery until the release of the election results, said LAB.

This ensures that one of its puppets from the local ruling classes will win the national elections, a direct interference with Philippine sovereignty. Besides, the American company Smartmatic earned more than Php 25 billion in the elections held between 2010 and 2022 despite failed services and cheating of the regime that used it.

For the coming national election in 2025, the Marcos regime awarded Miru Systems Co Ltd, a South Korean company in cahoots with imperialist US, with a Php 18 billion contract and another, i-One Resources, with Php 1.4 billion. The Commission of Elections (Comelec) boasted that the latter uses technology like the one used by the US Central Intelligence Company and US military services.

LAB said rampant corruption and fraud dominated the use of the technology of the two companies. Two examples stand out. Former Comelec Commissioner Andres Bautista was charged with hundreds of million Philippine pesos in malfeasance while present Commissioner George Bautista accused with billions.

LAB asserts, traditional methods of election malfeasance like vote buying, use of flying voters, misuse of government funds, terror tactics using private armed groups, military and police and massive disinformation in the media are still employed.

In contrast, elections in areas occupied by the revolutionary movement’s organs of political power (OPP) are peaceful. No one uses violence, intimidation or bribery.

“The OPP is an expression of the organized forces of the revolutionary masses to mobilize for the victory of the revolution. One of its main duties is to advance the People’s Democratic Revolution against the imperialist domination of the US and the local ruling class. Presently, it exists in different forms and levels depending on the power and extent of the revolutionary forces. It is commonly at the village level, moving towards municipal and provincial levels and ultimately establishing the People’s Democratic Republic. Because under the colonial and feudal system, revolution is the only and true solution to achieve freedom and true democracy,” concluded LAB.