Vigil over poll

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 5

Vigil over poll

A silent vigil by a coffin will be held by members of the Philippine Solidarity Group outside Christchurch Cathedral this evening over what the group sees as a “sham” election in the Philippines last week. “We will be there to express our solidarity with those who have been working for an end to the tyranny of the Marcos regime,” said a member of the group, Ms Roma Finlay. The coffin will symbolise those that the group says have died at the hands of the military during the 20 years Mr Ferdi-

nand Marcos has been President. The Philippines Parliament was still in a state of confusion this week as it tried to find a winner from last Friday’s presidential election. Thirty Government workers walked out of the Commission on Elections (or Comelec,) claiming that the tallies were being falsified in favour of Mr Marcos against his opposition candidate, Mrs Corazon Aquino. Under the constitution, the Marcos-controlled Parliament is the final arbiter in the election. “It is obscene that at

this time of severe economic crisis in the Philippines, with 82 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, the people are offered a sham election instead of a share in the resources of their own country,” Ms Finlay said. The Philippine Solidarity Group said that the United States’ support of the election had helped to “create the illusion of a viable two-party State.” “The reality is that Mr Marcos has been able to use his vast sources of wealth and military control to stage a massive fraud against his people,”