History
Bayan was founded by political activist Leandro Alejandro and former senator Lorenzo Tanada. Started in May 1985 during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. It brought together more than a thousand grassroots and progressive organizations, representing over a million people, largely "national democratic" groups aligned with the Communist Party of the Philippines.
It was a participant in the People Power Revolution against the Marcos dictatorship, contributing to one of the first of the non-violent, popular revolutions of the 1980s as well as involved in the creation of now-defunct Partido ng Bayan that participated during the 1987 elections. However, since 1998, Bayan Muna, the political party of the organization, has been the leading party-list member in the House of Representatives of the Philippines.
On August 7, 2002, the secretary-general of BAYAN, Teodoro A. Casiño, claimed that under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presidency, soldiers murdered at least 13 BAYAN and BAYAN Muna members.
Claims such as these are consistent with reports from Amnesty International. For example, on April 22, 2003, Amnesty International claimed that as part of the government's anti-insurgency campaign against the New Peoples' Army (NPA), there were systematic human rights violations such as disappearances, torture, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary arrests carried out by national security forces and paramilitary groups known as militias. According to the reports, both civilians and members of legally recognised organizations considered to be related to the NPA are at risk, especially in provinces such as Oriental Mindoro.
After the 2007 elections, and the death of Anakpawis representative Crispin Beltran, BAYAN now has five combined representatives in the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna, Rafael V. Mariano of Anakpawis, and Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan of GABRIELA.
In the 2010 elections Bayan has 7 congressmen in the lower house. Including Raymond Palatino, Neri Colmenares, Luzviminda Iligan.
Read more about this topic: Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
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