By Joyce Pangco Pañares

LEFTIST parties cannot be held criminally liable if their campaign paraphernalia are found in the camps of the communist New People’s Army, the Commission on Elections said yesterday.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. said the military should not blame Bayan Muna and Anakpawis if they are being supported by communist rebels.

“Just because a party-list is being supported by lawless elements, does not mean that this party-list supports lawlessness. If you are running, you will even solicit the support of unsavory characters,” Abalos said.

Abalos made the remark after the military found campaign materials of the two parties in the communist rebels biggest camp in northern Luzon late last week. Campaign paraphernalia from the two left-leaning party-list groups were found from the NPA’s camp in Mt. Bumalayak.

Military Chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said posters and pamphlets of Bayan Muna and Anakpawis can be used as evidence to prove the military’s claim that the two groups are front organizations of the NPA.

But Abalos advised the military not to make hasty conclusions pinning down the two party-list groups until they find a concrete link to the NPA.

Aside from the campaign paraphernalia, the military also seized guns, explosives, generators, a solar panel, medical equipment, a chainsaw, several alleged subversive materials, computers, and a guitar.

Esperon said he found a “contradiction” in the NPA campaigning for progressive party-list organizations when it is a known fact that the communist insurgents have long rejected the democratic electoral process.

“There is a contradiction because here you find campaign materials yet they condemn the elections. The elections should be a bedrock of democracy yet these are the same people who threaten to disrupt our elections,” Esperon said.

The camp, which is believed to be the provincial headquarters of the NPA in Abra, had 24 huts, a clinic, a mess hall, a training ground and a basketball court, as well as armory, radio and computer rooms.