Sanders should have known that the strategy already backfired against the political opponents of Rody who were blanked during the just held national elections.

The election fever in the United States is in full throttle, which is too evident with the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump and the noises being created by the Democrats, which is in a similar fix as the local Liberal Party in desperately seeking a political rebound.

United States Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will contest the Democrat candidacy for the 2020 elections, has joined the vicious noises against President Rody Duterte as he accused Rody’s administration of launching a crackdown on its workers.

“In recent years, we have seen abhorrent human rights abuses by the Philippine government. This repression of trade unionists is a shameful attempt to silence people’s rights and freedoms,” Sanders said in a social media post.

“More than ever, we must stand on the side of global human rights,” his tweet read.

Expectedly, he was carrying the line of the usual critics particularly that of detained Sen. Leila de Lima, who assailed the joint police and military raids on communist fronts in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, which resulted in the arrest of 62 militants who have been linked to the communist movement.

Rights group Karapatan, one of the suspected fronts, assailed the raids and mass arrests comparing it to the Gestapo operations during World War II by the secret state police of Nazi Germany.

Police and military operatives confirmed during the raid the identities of communist terrorists using alleged fronts and found firearms and explosives.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said an alleged Karapatan member named Proceso Quiatzon was even found in the underground “safe house” in Bacolod during the operations.

He said Quiatzon is one of about 60 individuals arrested and was proof the supposed progressive groups are alleged fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.

De Lima called the result of the operations red-tagging and filed Senate Resolution 215 that asks the Senate to investigate rights abuses allegedly committed by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

The task force is directly under the Office of the President and was formed through Executive Order 70, issued in December 2018. President Rodrigo Duterte serves as the chair, while National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. serves as vice chair.

Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Carlos Zarate and Bayan Negros secretary-general Michael de la Concepcion hurled allegations that the recovered firearms and explosives were planted evidence by the raiding teams.

The operations, nonetheless, were legal since they were conducted with the use of search warrants. Raided were the local headquarters of Kilusang Mayo Uno, Gabriela and Anakpawis in Barangay Bata in Bacolod City and two other offices occupied by the National Federation of Sugar Workers in Barangay 33 in Bacolod City.

Andanar said the raids were done in a “lawful, safe, quick and precise manner,” as a result of the close coordination of the agencies in the NTF-ELCAC.

Sanders, of course, merely wanted to squeeze political mileage out of an incident the details of which he was totally ignorant on except for what was fed him by the Reds and the yellow mobs who are perpetually looking for an effective international megaphone against Rody.

The Democrat candidate would be a willing tool as he scrambles for any ammunition that can be used against Trump, who Sanders accuses of playing footsies with leaders who he labels as autocrats.

Sanders should have known that the strategy already backfired against the political opponents of Rody who were blanked during the just held national elections.

The desperate American candidate is merely toying with the prospect of being infected by the kiss of death from Rody’s detractors.