P8,000 Daily for a PMA Cadet; a Paltry P43 for the State Scholar

Unlike all other state universities and colleges (SCUs), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) remains the learning institution most favored by government. While the budget of the SCUs has been slashed anew several-fold this year, that of the PMA has been increased.

By Ronalyn Olea
Bulatlat
Vol. V, No. 3, February 20-26, 2005

Compared to all other state universities and colleges (SCUs), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) remains the learning institution most favored by government. Along with the Department of Education (DepEd), the SCUs have their new budgets slashed several-fold.

The PMA, as expected, has no budget cut; its allocation has in fact been increased – from P557.92 million last year to P568.17 million this year.

In the proposed budget, the PMA cadet is subsidized with P12 million for a four-year course or roughly P8,219 a day; his counterpart at the state Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) has a measly P43 a day or only 0.52 percent of the PMA cadet’s daily subsidy.

The PMA produces the country’s military elite but its professional hierarchy in the armed forces has been wracked by graft scandals, mutinous tendencies and human rights violations. This has not deterred the current presidency – and its predecessors – from showering both the military and national police with fat salary increases and other high budget allocations, however.

Speaking at a rally of about 1,000 students in Mendiola, Manila on Feb. 14, Rizza Ramirez, national president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), asked: “Is this government more interested in producing corrupt military officials than professionals and teachers much needed by the country? While this government spends huge amounts of money in launching its war in Mindanao, the Filipino students suffer from dilapidated facilities, tuition and miscellaneous fee hikes and low quality of education.”

The Valentine’s Day rally, joined by students from SCUs and public high schools, called President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a “heartless mother.” The state scholars and other rallyers lambasted the Macapagal-Arroyo government for cutting education expenditures mercilessly in favor of debt servicing and military expenditures.

In the proposed national budget for this year, 33.6 percent goes to interest payments amounting to P301.69 billion, Ramirez said. The combined allocation for debt servicing, including the payment for the principal debt, accounts for more than 70 percent of the national budget. The country has now incurred a $60 billion foreign debt.

Moreover, P1.2 billion will be allotted for intelligence funds this year. The Office of the President will get P650 million. The intelligence fund earmarked for the Philippine National Police (PNP) is P270 million; Department of National Defense (DND), P111.5 million; and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), P31.24 million.

The budget of the DND this year amounts to P43.6 billion. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will get P46.04 billion.

Anti-VAT, too

Ramirez, a college senior from the University of the Philippines (UP), also opposed the imposition of a hike on the Value-Added Tax (VAT) saying taxes do not translate to social services such as education, health and housing.

“Isn’t it appalling for Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo to tax anew the poor majority so as not to default on debt payments? The Filipino youth and the people in general do not get their fair share in the nation’s wealth. The national budget for this year reveals so much about her real priorities,” the NUSP president said.

Overall, education spending remains a pittance compared to debt servicing and military expenditures. For the first time, the Department of Education (DepEd) will suffer a budget slash of P4.6 billion from last year’s allocation. The reduction is expected to even aggravate the public education crisis in terms of shortages in classrooms, desks, textbooks and teachers.

SCUs will have to do with P950 million less than the previous allocation. The UP budget will bear the biggest slash amounting to P355.64 million. Because of the reduced subsidies, SCUs are even more compelled to increase tuition and other fees.

In UP, tuition increases have been imposed even under the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP). While in 1989, tuition was pegged at P17 per unit today it stands at P300 per unit. In 2001, tuition in the UP graduate school increased from P300 per unit to P500-P700 per unit. In the state university’s five units, laboratory fees have also been jacked up. From the previous P0.00 to P50, these fees were increased to P500 to P600.

Processing fees

Meanwhile, in PUP processing fees were hiked by 67 to 100 percent. The PUP administration also plans to increase tuition from P12 per unit to P88 per unit. The Philippine Normal University (PNU) also increased its tuition by 400 percent in 2003.

Regional state universities also suffer tuition and other fee increases. In Central Luzon State University (CLSU), for example, tuition and miscellaneous fees were hiked by 298 percent. At the Aklan Polytechnic Institute, tuition will increase by 400 percent in the next four years. The Ramon Magsaysay Technological University (RMTU) in Zambales raised its tuition from P80 to P150 per unit last year. A P200 development fee is also collected from the students.

The Mindanao State University in General Santos City will raise its tuition from P50 to P150 per unit. The University of Eastern Philippines (UEP) in Samar will also implement a tuition hike, from P40 per unit to P150 per unit.

The budgets cuts have reportedly driven thousands of state scholars from registering at the SCUs anymore because of higher tuition. They either join the increasing army of college dropouts or, particularly those whose families can afford it, enroll for two-year technical or vocational courses in quest of a job abroad.

Meanwhile, about 10,000 students from the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) in Manila walked out of their classes on Feb. 14. Wearing black, the students opposed the proposal to change the name of the university to Malayan Institute. MIT, a top engineering school, is owned by the Yuchengco Group of Companies. The Yuchengcos own the Malayan Insurance and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, among others. The school is listed among the top 1,000 corporations in 2003 with P28.7-million profit. Bulatlat

© 2004 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications

NO to VAT!Yes to P3,000 Across-the-Board Salary Increase

Statement of the All UP Workers Union Manila for the Nationwide Protest Action on February 16, 2005 Against the Proposed Law to Increase the Value Addded Tax from the present 10% to 12%

Simula pa noong 1998 hanggang sa kasalukuyan, ipinaglalaban na natin ang dagdag na sweldong P3,000 kada buwan para sa ating mga manggagawang pangkalusugan at kawani ng pamahalaan ngunit nananatiling bingi ang pamahalaan. Sa halip na dagdag sahod ang asikasuhin ay dagdag na gastusin na naman ng mamamayan ang inatupag na maaprubahan sa mababang kapulungan at ngayon ay minamadali ang deliberasyon sa Senado. Ito ang Value Added Tax o VAT.

Mula sa 10% VAT ay gagawin itong 12%, o 20% na pagtaass sa matagal nang pasakit sa atin na VAT. Grabe na itong ginagawa sa atin ng pamahalaan, imbes na pakinggan ang hinaing ng mga karaniwang kawani na taon-taon, ay siyang pinakamalaking nagbibigay ng buwis sa bayan ay itong dagdag na VAT pa ang inatupag na isang imposisyon ng International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ito ay upang makasiguro ang IMF na may tiyak na badyet ang Pilipinas para sa pambayad ng prinsipal at sa lumolobong interes sa mga utang na ginarantiyahan ng gubyerno. Samakatuwid, sa halip na magdagdag ng badyet para sa serbisyong panlipunan tulad ng pangkalusugan at taasan ang sahod ng mismong mga kawani nito; mas prayoridad ng gobyerno na magbayad sa mga utang na karamihan ay di napakinabangan ng mamamayan kung ‘di ng mga malalaking negosyante at sa malawakang korupsyon na nagsisimula sa Malakanyang.

Sa simula’t simula pa man ay tinututulan na natin ang value added tax dahil sa isa itong klase ng regressive na sistema ng pagbubuwis. Ang ibig sabihin ay pareho ang ibinabayad na buwis ng mayaman at mahirap o ng malaki ang kita at maliit o walang kinikita. Damang-dama natin ang bigat ng epekto ng naunang 10% VAT sa tuwing magbabayad tayo ng konsumo at serbisyo, at maging sa mga pangunahing bilihin. Ngayon ay nais pang dagdagan.

Sinasabi ng pamahalaan na tanging mga “mayayaman” lamang daw ang maaapektuhan nito, at ang makokolekta naman daw sa dagdag na buwis na ito ay ibabalik sa pamamagitan ng dagdag na serbisyong panlipunan; ang sagot naman natin “hindi tayo isinilang lang kahapon para lolokohin na naman nila.” Tanging sa pagkakaisa at sa malawakang pagkilos ng iba’t ibang sektor ng ating lipunan, mapipigilan at maibabasura, hindi lamang ang panukalang batas na ito kundi maging ang iba pang mga patakaran ng pamahalaan na direktang nagpapahirap sa lugmok nang kalagayan ng malawak na bilang ng mamamayan.

Kaya’t mga ka-manggagawang pangkalusugan, sama-sama tayong lumahok sa Pambansang Koordinadong Kilos Protesta Laban Sa VAT (kasabay ng malawakang Prayer Rally) ngayong Miyerkules, Pebrero 16, 2005, 1:00 ng hapon, Senate, GSIS Bldg, Roxas Blvd, Pasay.

Magkita-kita tayo sa ika-11:00 ng umaga sa PGH Flagpole Area.

Ibasura ang VAT! P3000 across the board monthly salary increase ang dapat!
BADYET SA SERBISYONG PANGKALUSUGAN, DAGDAGAN ‘WAG BAWASAN!

All UP Workers Union Manila
Ika-15 ng Pebrero 2005

GMA: OO NANG OO SA MGA DAYUHAN! TUTULAN ANG PAGTAAS NG VAT!

Dagdag na P3,000 across-the-board para sa mga kawani, guro at REPS!
Sapat na badyet para sa UP, PGH at sa sektor ng edukasyon at kalusugan!
Ilipat ang pambayad-utang sa edukasyon at serbisyong pangkalusugan!

Mula 2001 pa ang kahilingan natin para sa dagdag na sahod para sa mga kawani, guro, REPS at iba pang kawani ng pamahalaan. Hanggang ngayon wala pa ring dagdag na sahod para sa atin.

Taon-taon, napapako o nababawasan ang badyet para sa edukasyon at kalusugan, kabilang na ang badyet ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas na sa taong ito ay nakaambang bawasan ng P357 milyon, ang pinakamalaking pagbabawas sa ating badyet sa ating kasaysayan. Samantala ang budget ng PGH at napako na lamang sa P1 Bilyon simula pa ng 1993.

Kahapon, nang madaling araw, walang pagdadalawang isip na ipinasa ng Mababang Kapulungan ng Kongreso na dominado ng mga kasabwat ni Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ang HB 3555 na nagdadagdag ng 2% sa Value Added Tax o kabuuang 20% na pagtaas mula sa dating 10% tungo sa 12%. Ang pagtaas ng VAT ay tugon ng administrasyong Macapagal-Arroyo sa rekomendasyon ng Post-Program Monitoring Team ng International Monetary Fund na narito noong Hunyo 25-Hulyo 8, 2004, na taasan ang Value Added Tax.

Totoong exempted sa VAT ang ilang bilihin tulad ng mga produktong agrikultural (gulay,isda) at ilang serbisyo, pero saklaw nito ang maraming produkto at serbisyo. Mararagdagan ang buwis sa pagkaing tulad ng asukal, kape, pan de sal, mantika, sardines, noodles), damit, sapatos, gamot, bayad sa telepono, construction materials, semento at marami pang ibang pangangailangan. Kung gayon, dagdag na pasanin ang pagtaas ng VAT sa mamamayan laluna sa mahihirap at mga fixed salary employees tulad nating mga kawani, guro at REPS ng UP.

Dagdag na namang patotoo ang pagtutulak sa pagtataas ng VAT ng administrasyong Macapagal-Arroyo habang bingi ito sa kahilingan natin sa pagtaas ng ating sahod at dagdag na badyet sa edukasyon at iba pang serbisyong pampubliko, na pinauuna nito ang interes ng mga dayuhan! Tandaan natin na sa P907 B badyet para sa 2005 na nakatakdang aprubahan ng Senado ngayong Pebrero, P301.6 bilyon o 1/3 ng kabuuang badyet ang nakatalaga para sa pagbayad sa interes sa utang sa dayuhan. Kapag isama ang P344.1 bilyon na otomatikong nakatalaga sa bayad sa prinsipal sa utang, P645.7 bilyon ang nakatalaga para sa mga dayuhang bangko para sa 2005. Samantala, P111 bilyon lamang ang nakatalaga para sa batayang edukasyon at P16.8 bilyon para sa mga state universities and colleges at P10.3 bilyon lamang para sa kalusugan.

Kaya malinaw na ang dagdag na pasanin sa buwis na kakarguhin ng mamamayan ay pangunahing pupunta sa pambayad utang, hindi para sa kagalingan ng mamamayan.

Sama-sama nating tutulan ang dagdag sa VAT at pagpaprayoridad sa pambayad utang ng pamahalaang Macapagal Arroyo.

Ipaglaban natin ang pagtaas sa ating sahod at ang dagdag na badyet sa edukasyon at serbisyong pangkalusugan.


ALL-UP WORKERS UNION
ALL-UP ACADEMIC EMPLOYEES UNION
Enero 28, 2005

Get Real : A Perfect Place to Start Anti-Graft Drive

By: Solita Collas- Monsod
Inquirer News Service Editor's

Note: Published on page A12 of the January 8, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE CHAIRMAN of the Board of Trustees of the corporation gets a P100,000 monthly "allowance." The Treasurer of the Board and the Chairman of the Management Committee each get P70,000 a month, also in "allowances." These, aside from their per diems of P20,000 per board meeting, and all fixed by various resolutions of the board.

Must be a pretty profitable, private corporation, yes? Well, we're talking about the APO Production Unit Inc., which does printing for government offices, particularly security printing. But whether APO is a private corporation or a government-owned or -controlled one depends on whom you are asking, and for what purpose.

Gerry Sicat, one of the original incorporators of APO (it used to be called APO-Neda) says that it is a government instrumentality. So does the Department of Justice in an opinion (No. 52, S.1975) rendered by the late Catalino "Mac" Macaraig when he was acting justice secretary. So does the1997 Manual of Procurement of the Commission on Audit ("the APO is not aprivate entity but a government instrumentality").

The chairman of the board of trustees was the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General for many years, until Neda asked that APO be either attached to another agency or privatized. Since then, the chairman and members of the board have been chosen by the President of the Philippines (not a direct appointment but expressed in an "It is my desire..." letter that is carried out).

On the other hand, when he was the Ombudsman, Aniano Desierto dismissed a case brought against some APO officials by the labor union on grounds thatthe Ombudsman had no authority to rule since APO was a private entity. He apparently changed his mind later and considered it a government instrumentality, but I'm not clear on this.

More recently, I have been given to understand that the Privatization Management Office assumes that it is a private corporation that was taken over by government (based on the fact that it was under the AssetPrivatization Trust, or APT) because it was unable to pay its debts to the Philippine National Bank. Which brings us to the second issue. Is APO so profitable that it can afford such largesse to its board of trustees? And there, the answer is unambiguous. It has been losing heavily (although its labor union says it would be profiting, if it were run properly instead of being treated as a milking cow).

I asked Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin what she knew about APO, and she told me that: the latest APO financial statements she saw showed heavy losses and an industry study shows that APO is one of the highest-cost printing enterprises. Not to make too fine a point about it, APO is in deep s__t financially. And this has been going on for a long time. It borrowed heavily to buy new machines and equipment (importing them tax free, as a government entity), and as early as 1987, was already deep in arrears, and was never able to get out of it, in spite of the heavy demand for its services. By the time it was transferred to the APT in 1996, its accumulated unpaid loan account amountedto P210.896 million.

Why has it not been able to turn itself around?

An example, taken from the findings of a Commission on Audit (COA) special audit, makes the answer obvious (one has to read all the COA special audit reports to fully appreciate the extent of mismanagement): checks amounting to P16.6 million were issued to two non-employees who were allegedly close relatives of the APO internal auditor as payment for their "fair incentive" commissions for 1996 to 1998. That's a lot of money.

However, the commissions were paid for sales to government agencies (e.g.,Philippine Postal Corp., Bureau of Internal Revenue, National Statistics Office, Department of Trade and Industry), which are really captive markets. No special effort is required to get these orders, particularly because the National Printing Office doesn't have comparable equipment. But guess what? The board of trustees at the time apparently allowed commissions to be paid anyway.

There were additional complications. It seems these two relatives who earned the P16.6 million over a three-year period were full-time employees in a private company and had separately applied for and received from the Social Security System salary loans for P9,000, duly deposited in their savings accounts, during the period when they were supposedly earning all those millions. Neither of their bank accounts showed any deposits of the checks they supposedly received as commissions.

Pretty damning evidence, if you ask me. Yet, the internal auditor involved still holds the same position up to now. As a matter of fact, all but one ofthe seven APO officials charged long ago with irregularities are still very much in power and holding the most crucial positions: general manager, accounting, auditing, sales.

Just last year, the general manager was again the subject of the same kind of complaint by the labor union, a complaint which, it seems, was dismissed by the Board of Trustees, even as some members of the board were not furnished a copy of the reply of the general manager.

Is it any wonder that the company is in a deep financial mess?

Yet in spite of this, the Board of Trustees gives itself allowances that would make a private corporation envious.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has called for "urgent change." She has also pledged to "take executive action to break the culture of corruption. " Well, APO is a perfect place for her to start.

AUPWU Manila, VCA Holds Dialogue Re: Casuals, Representation Issues

The All UP Workers Union Manila and the Vice Chancellor for Administration Dr. Arlene A. Samañiego holds a dialogue today at around 9:00 AM regarding the status of casuals in the the U.P. Manila's Central Administration, the Academic Units and the National Institutes of Health and on representation right of the union.

The following issues/measures were clarified/agreed upon:

1. All casuals in the campus will be given a one (1) month renewal appointment for the month of January 2005 only as a temporary measure to have a continuous service of all casuals (without gap in service) while the National Budget and or a 2005 Internal Operating Budget has not been approved. Meanwhile all units will be enjoined to already prepare for budget clearance, the five (5) month appointments (February - June 2005) of all casuals under them.
2. There will be no termination that would happen during the transition period except with cause, such as those serving their respective administrative penalties and with unsatisfactory performance evaluation. On such cases, it is understood that the casual concerned had already been forwarned in advance of non-renewal of appointment.
3. All casuals were normally given with six (6) months appointments.
4. The Administration will renew the representation right of the union in the Advisory Board of the UP Manila Creche and Learning center.
5. The representation right of the union on all other committees related to employees welfare and benefits in which it was not yet given such right will be looked into by the Vice Chancellor, such as the Personnel Effectiveness Audit Committee, the UP Manila committee in-charge of studying the implementation of DBM Circular 2004-3 (Conversion of Positions Performing Staff/Non-Technical Functions; and other similar committees.
   
   Months earlier, the chapter had already allerted the National Executive Board on the existence and on-going work of such committee that exist at the UP System but without even consulting the union as embodied in our CNA.
6. The union seeks to have representation on such committees in order to advance the interest of the rank-and-file administrative employees even in the formulation of internal guidelines in our campus especially on the fact tha the government will be using such Circular/s to retrench employees; or euphemistically - streamline the bureaucracy.
   
   Our previous blogs already expresses the union's position on such "double speak" by the government under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

New Features Added on our Web Log Pages

Beginning today, December 13, 2004, we have added a chatter box at our web log pages: "The UP Workers" and "Sa Ospital ng Bayan" (URL: http://aupwu.blogspot.com and http://aupwumla.blogspot.com, respectively). This is to encourage our constituency in the hospital, the constituent university and the UP System to post their comments, reactions or suggestions online. And also as a mean for online chatting.

Words of caution though: "Please limit your chat topics to work-related and union-related issues."

The chat box maybe found near the counter box at of the default page of each wep log pages, at the left narrow module for "The UP Workers" and at the right narrow module for the "Sa Ospital ng Bayan."

It also include provisions for universal reosurce locator (url) for our constituents who have their own web pages, web logs, xanga, etc., by which the union may respond to their queries and comments or simply we may able to know them better by visiting thier own web sites.

Travesty of Human Rights

Streetwise
by Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

Today is human rights day. Two nights ago, Marcelino “Ka Marcing” Beltran, president of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Tarlac, a survivor of the Hacienda Luisita massacre last November 16, was gunned down outside his house in barangay San Sotero, Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac.

Today is his birthday; the peasant leader would have turned 52.

Just three days earlier, Ka Marcing gave a team of lawyers his eyewitness account of that infamous day when striking farm and sugar mill workers, their families and supporters, were mowed down at the picket line by automatic gunfire, resulting in the confirmed deaths of seven and the wounding of more than a hundreds others. He was articulate, fearless, agitated, his words tumbling from his mouth as he narrated how he miraculously escaped the hail of bullets even as he helped carry the dying and the wounded to safety, away from the bloodthirsty police, military and private security forces who relentlessly pursued the fleeing strikers and rallyists with their guns, truncheons and boots.

Ka Marcing had no enemies save those he wittingly or unwittingly created by his unswerving leadership of the militant peasant organization in Tarlac as well as the larger alliance of peasants and farm workers called Alyansa ng Mag-uuma sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL).

Given this background and the circumstances of his death, it is reasonable to assume that his killing is intimately related to the latest labor disputes and festering land problem at Hacienda Luisita.

To date all that the Arroyo government has done about the massacre is to wash its hands of any responsibility. The undisputed fact however is that it was DOLE Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas’ assumption of jurisdiction over the labor disputes in a so-called “strategic industry” such as the Cojuangco-owned sugar plantation and mill, her return to work order and her deputization of both the police and the military to break up the picket line provided both the legal cover and the overwhelming firepower that triggered the massacre.

The latest statement of Mrs. Arroyo on the matter is revealing in its emptiness: “The labor department is doing its best to obtain a fair and peaceful settlement of the Hacienda Luisita dispute. Labor problems must be solved at the negotiating table. All parties must act responsibly so that tragedies can be averted.”

Completely oblivious is she, the President, to whom all Cabinet secretaries are directly accountable, and the Commander-in-Chief, the sole authority with the power to call out the troops in case of an outbreak of so-called “lawless violence,” to the facts of the matter. That management had engaged in unfair labor practices by illegally dismissing nine of the officials of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and replacing the union president with a man they had handpicked. That management then refused to negotiate with the legitimate leadership of the farm workers union and was deadlocked on the demands of both the farm and azucarera workers. That the PNP had earlier attempted three violent dispersals using truncheons, water cannons and tear gas but were turned back by the sheer number and assertiveness of the strikers and their supporters.

Witnesses’ testimonies and video footages of the Hacienda Luisita carnage point to premeditation and intent to kill on the part of the government security forces, private security guards and a number of eskirol. But all these are apparently mean nothing to Mrs. Arroyo and her cordon sanitaire who knows what it is that she wants to hear.

It appears that Mrs. Arroyo wants only to hear excuses and to find scapegoats for her government’s disastrous policies and overall criminal complicity with the greedy, heartless and ruinous ruling elite in this country and their rapacious foreign partners.

She is especially fond of using the New People’s Army (NPA) and other revolutionary forces as whipping boy for everything that is wrong with her government and the ruling system. In her speech on the occasion of human rights week she couldn’t resist taking a snipe at the so-called human rights abuses of “insurgents and terrorists” rather than taking a critical look at her government’s own human rights record. She takes the lead and provides the cue to her Cabinet who think nothing of pointing to the communist rebels as the masterminds and provocateurs whether it be cases of labor and peasant unrest, violent dispersals of protest mass actions, indiscriminate bombings and other alleged terrorist acts up to and including opposition to new, onerous taxes and unconscionable debt servicing in the face of unprecedented financial crisis, protest over massive use of government funds for Mrs. Arroyo’s reelection bid and assorted “destabilization plots” such as the ones hyped by her own generals to cover up rampant corruption in the AFP.

The President’s latest charge that the NPA are “illegal loggers” and, ergo, are mainly responsible for forest denudation and the wasteland that has become of several provinces in Luzon in the aftermath of the typhoons that hit the country is ludicrous except to the most rabid anti-communists like her who will believe anything evil of the revolutionary movement. The President’s propensity to blame the NPA for anything and everything that bedevils her regime ironically shows up the inutility of her brand of governance: it takes a major catastrophe for her clueless DENR Secretary to finally raid a handful of sawmills with illegally cut logs; for her to set up a new anti-illegal logging task force with an initial P100 million budget to determine who have been scalping the already bald mountains; and for Malacañang to declare a suspension in all logging activities minus the ones exempted by the DENR secretary.

The bad habit of passing the blame to an entity, the NPA, that the government cannot run after except through vilification and psywar campaigns and failed counter-insurgency programs, results objectively in a situation where the real culprits get away with their high crimes. Those who are really culpable can only include the Arroyo government, one that has not exhibited the moral courage to admit its failures nor the political will to institute the barest of genuine reforms. Worse, it is a government that looks the other way when the perpetration by state forces of gross human rights violations is fast becoming a hallmark of its insecure rule.

As President and Commander-in-Chief, Mrs. Arroyo’s hands are bloodied by the murders of the Hacienda Luisita protesters, the assassination of Ka Marcing Beltran and all other leaders of the exploited and oppressed masses, and the unabated killings of human rights workers.

Similarly, she must also be held accountable for the devastation and massacre of entire communities by her government’s criminal negligence in allowing destructive commercial logging to go on unabated until the mind boggling man-made catastrophe that followed the fury of nature’s typhoons.###