Women's party-list denies link to Arroyo admin

A party-list group representing the women sector on Thursday denied accusation that it enjoys the support of the Arroyo administration. In a statement, Babae Para sa Kaunlaran (BABAE KA) also scored its accuser, the multi-sectoral poll watchdog Kontra Daya, of being “agent-provocateurs" of a group that has been advocating a “proletariat dictatorship." “We have organized BABAE KA in 2005 on the initiatives of women community and sectoral leaders and participated in the 2007 elections, without any backing from anyone, including from the administration," the group said. Kontra Daya and the Kabataan party-list had earlier urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate BABAE KA and 37 other groups that were identified as “pro-administration" in a 2006 Malacañang memorandum. In its statement, BABAE KA lashed out at other leftist groups that claim to represent the women’s sector but supposedly do not really have the interest of women in their agenda. “[They] only ride on women’s issues to advance their ideological objective of destroying our democratic institutions from within, to be able to put in place their own autocratic brand of government," it said. The group’s nominees for the May 10 elections, a list of which was submitted to the Comelec Thursday, are Nerissa garcia, Ruth Vasquez, Jacqueline Lingad, Maria Corazon Tumang, and Daisy Suansing. The Comelec accredited 187 party-list organizations for the upcoming elections. These groups have until Friday to submit their list of nominees. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV