MEDIA RELEASE
IBON Foundation, Inc.,
3/F SCC Bldg 4427 Interior Old Sta Mesa, Manila, Philippines
Tel. (632) 713-2729, 713-2737 E-mail: media@ibon.orgJuly 14, 2005
The Finance Department’s knee-jerk reaction to the recent outlook downgrade imposed on the country by Fitch and Standard and Poor’s exposed the serious dilemma that President Arroyo and her economic managers face, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.
To assure foreign creditors that the government is determined to pursue fiscal reforms, assistant Finance Secretary Gil Beltran said that they may revive the proposal to impose a tax on text messaging. But the political situation does not allow for such ‘bitter pills’ as the demand for Arroyo’s resignation intensifies by the day.
Economic mismanagement plus the political crisis have brought Arroyo to a tight spot. With an economic program that heavily relies on foreign debt and capital, Arroyo pursued fiscal reforms designed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), ignored calls for a substantial wage hike, allowed oil pump prices to soar, etc.
Arroyo now wants to slow down with these policies, and may even entertain to reverse them, amid mass protests for her ouster, but this would displease foreign creditors and investors.
This dilemma shows that the Arroyo administration is no longer viable. She has long lost public support due to her anti-people policies and mismanagement of the economic and fiscal crises. Now indicators show that she is also losing the trust of foreign creditors and investors due to her handling of the political crisis.
The President may weather the present storm but it will never last as long the contradictions between her economic policies and the Filipino people’s interest remain. (end)
Friday, July 15, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Political Gambit
First posted 02:20am (Mla time)
July 13, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
THE NAMES of the pieces in chess, that fine game of strategy, tell us it took off from medieval European politics with its pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens and kings. Victory or defeat will often depend on the gambits, the first moves made during the game, which could include sacrificing first pawns, then rooks, knights, bishops.
Think now of the parallels between chess and Philippine politics, with all the maneuvering and surprise moves of politicians, Cabinet members, the military, the bishops. The power of each of the different pieces will vary. Bishops, for example, can only move diagonally, although this early I'd warn people against underestimating their power. In Indian chess, the equivalent of the bishop is the elephant, slow-moving but formidable.
Although the objective of chess is to reach checkmate by trapping the king so he can't escape, the queens are the most powerful pieces in chess, with their ability to move across the board vertically, horizontally or diagonally. In Philippine politics, we have our share of powerful queens, notably Imelda, Cory, Gloria and Susan.
Gloria's gambits
In the rough and tumble real world of Philippine politics, most of the chess pieces come alive, able to move on their own. I said "most" because, sadly, pawns are pawns, on the chess board or in the real world, there to be manipulated and sacrificed.
As I said earlier, the queens are powerful. Cory Aquino and SusanRoces so far have the disadvantage. It is Gloria Arroyo who has the benefit of being the incumbent president. She has successfully bought time, using her loyalists in Congress to stall the investigations, and preempting a checkmate around the jueteng scandal by "exiling" the king to America.
Let's face the harsh reality: this is a President who will never resign. As the daughter of a president, she is determined to prove herself as great or greater than her father. In other societies, resignation would have been deemed honorable when tendered at the slightest hint of scandal. In our society-and we need to change this-even in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrong-doing, a politician will insist on innocence because this is the "honorable" thing to do.
The President's gambits have been drastic, with many pawns sacrificed. As pressure grows, she will continue to go through motions of token penitence. So expect more billboards with her cold wan smile, reminding Filipinos of her "servant" role (read Corinthians). She could even back track on the highly unpopular E-VAT and sacrifice a few more pawns, maybe even rooks and knights.
Even subjecting herself to the impeachment processes is a gambit; the President knows at this point that an attempt to impeach will not go very far because she still has the numbers in Congress. But what is so scary here is that we could go indefinitely in an end game, forcing us to live with a hobbled presidency for months, even years. We are a nation being held hostage by one woman's pride and messianic delusions.
Bishops' gambit
I look at the recent statement from the Catholic Bishops' Conferenceof the Philippines (CBCP) as a gambit, too. But let me leave, for now, the metaphors of chess, acknowledging that the stakes are much higher. So much of the focus has been on Ms Arroyo's survival when in fact it is the nation's future that is at stake.
It is this understanding of the nation's future, rather than the President's political survival, that should give us the context for looking at the CBCP statement. The bishops' statement declares their pastoral role: "to shepherd people in the light of faith." I can appreciate the bishops' dilemma as they attempt to assume this role, to so many people. In previous political crises, we had either one person (Jaime Cardinal Sin in 1986) or a group of Manila's bishops (as in the crisis around Estrada in 2001) calling on Catholics to act. This time around, theCBCP faced the challenge of having a national statement. They succeeded, and isn't quite as ambiguous and non-committal as some people would take it to be.
Moral gambit
The CBCP statement leaves options open, which is absolutely essential at this stage of the crisis where, using existing legal frameworks, we would have a long way to go before the President can ever be convictedof any crime.
The bishops' statement is a crucial moral gambit, calling on Filipinos "to discern their decisions not in terms of political loyalties but in the light of the Gospel values of truth, justice and the common good. "The bishops help with this discernment, warning us against "those groups who seek to exploit our vulnerable national situation in orderto create confusion and social chaos" either through "juntas or revolutionary councils.
"Conversely, they identify options that could be adopted: "For we recognize that non-violent appeals for her resignation, the demand for a Truth Commission and the filing of an impeachment case are not against the Gospel." These options suggest how we might go beyond narrow legalistic frameworks toward a "moral inquiry" that should guide us to action.
That moral inquiry must, in the long term, look toward "ambivalent cultural values such as palakasan, pakikisama, utang na loob, and family-centeredness." I am very much encouraged by the bishops'recognition of how so many of our problems are based on these traditional values.
But there are short-term concerns as well. I am not surprised that so many of the calls for resignation come from people who take their roles seriously as educators and parents. I was listening to former Peace Adviser Teresita Deles on television, linking her resignation from the Cabinet to her role as a parent. How indeed do we explain to our children, and to our students, that cheating, lying and stealing are wrong, punishable by expulsion from school, and yet allowing a President to get away with an apology for a "lapse in judgement, "translated now into Tagalog as a retrospective "Ay, mali pala," oops, I erred.
Responding to the CBCP challenge will take many forms. Many of us in educational institutions and the mass media will continue with our calls to resign, not because they will make her resign but because our voices, while few right now and in the wilderness, are needed if we are to remain credible with our young.
Our voices, too, might help to embolden those who are waiting, hesitant about coming out with more expos's. And to Vice President Noli de Castro and others waiting in the wings, the louder the voices, the sterner the warning to them: if and when they do assume power, it will no longer be as easy for them to get away with corruption.
In Western chess, as end game approaches, the remaining pieces on the board all become indispensable. What we make of ourselves-dispensable pawns or rooks or knights or bishops, maybe even queens-depends on how we take up the challenge posed by the moral gambits.
(c)2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
July 13, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
THE NAMES of the pieces in chess, that fine game of strategy, tell us it took off from medieval European politics with its pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens and kings. Victory or defeat will often depend on the gambits, the first moves made during the game, which could include sacrificing first pawns, then rooks, knights, bishops.
Think now of the parallels between chess and Philippine politics, with all the maneuvering and surprise moves of politicians, Cabinet members, the military, the bishops. The power of each of the different pieces will vary. Bishops, for example, can only move diagonally, although this early I'd warn people against underestimating their power. In Indian chess, the equivalent of the bishop is the elephant, slow-moving but formidable.
Although the objective of chess is to reach checkmate by trapping the king so he can't escape, the queens are the most powerful pieces in chess, with their ability to move across the board vertically, horizontally or diagonally. In Philippine politics, we have our share of powerful queens, notably Imelda, Cory, Gloria and Susan.
Gloria's gambits
In the rough and tumble real world of Philippine politics, most of the chess pieces come alive, able to move on their own. I said "most" because, sadly, pawns are pawns, on the chess board or in the real world, there to be manipulated and sacrificed.
As I said earlier, the queens are powerful. Cory Aquino and SusanRoces so far have the disadvantage. It is Gloria Arroyo who has the benefit of being the incumbent president. She has successfully bought time, using her loyalists in Congress to stall the investigations, and preempting a checkmate around the jueteng scandal by "exiling" the king to America.
Let's face the harsh reality: this is a President who will never resign. As the daughter of a president, she is determined to prove herself as great or greater than her father. In other societies, resignation would have been deemed honorable when tendered at the slightest hint of scandal. In our society-and we need to change this-even in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrong-doing, a politician will insist on innocence because this is the "honorable" thing to do.
The President's gambits have been drastic, with many pawns sacrificed. As pressure grows, she will continue to go through motions of token penitence. So expect more billboards with her cold wan smile, reminding Filipinos of her "servant" role (read Corinthians). She could even back track on the highly unpopular E-VAT and sacrifice a few more pawns, maybe even rooks and knights.
Even subjecting herself to the impeachment processes is a gambit; the President knows at this point that an attempt to impeach will not go very far because she still has the numbers in Congress. But what is so scary here is that we could go indefinitely in an end game, forcing us to live with a hobbled presidency for months, even years. We are a nation being held hostage by one woman's pride and messianic delusions.
Bishops' gambit
I look at the recent statement from the Catholic Bishops' Conferenceof the Philippines (CBCP) as a gambit, too. But let me leave, for now, the metaphors of chess, acknowledging that the stakes are much higher. So much of the focus has been on Ms Arroyo's survival when in fact it is the nation's future that is at stake.
It is this understanding of the nation's future, rather than the President's political survival, that should give us the context for looking at the CBCP statement. The bishops' statement declares their pastoral role: "to shepherd people in the light of faith." I can appreciate the bishops' dilemma as they attempt to assume this role, to so many people. In previous political crises, we had either one person (Jaime Cardinal Sin in 1986) or a group of Manila's bishops (as in the crisis around Estrada in 2001) calling on Catholics to act. This time around, theCBCP faced the challenge of having a national statement. They succeeded, and isn't quite as ambiguous and non-committal as some people would take it to be.
Moral gambit
The CBCP statement leaves options open, which is absolutely essential at this stage of the crisis where, using existing legal frameworks, we would have a long way to go before the President can ever be convictedof any crime.
The bishops' statement is a crucial moral gambit, calling on Filipinos "to discern their decisions not in terms of political loyalties but in the light of the Gospel values of truth, justice and the common good. "The bishops help with this discernment, warning us against "those groups who seek to exploit our vulnerable national situation in orderto create confusion and social chaos" either through "juntas or revolutionary councils.
"Conversely, they identify options that could be adopted: "For we recognize that non-violent appeals for her resignation, the demand for a Truth Commission and the filing of an impeachment case are not against the Gospel." These options suggest how we might go beyond narrow legalistic frameworks toward a "moral inquiry" that should guide us to action.
That moral inquiry must, in the long term, look toward "ambivalent cultural values such as palakasan, pakikisama, utang na loob, and family-centeredness." I am very much encouraged by the bishops'recognition of how so many of our problems are based on these traditional values.
But there are short-term concerns as well. I am not surprised that so many of the calls for resignation come from people who take their roles seriously as educators and parents. I was listening to former Peace Adviser Teresita Deles on television, linking her resignation from the Cabinet to her role as a parent. How indeed do we explain to our children, and to our students, that cheating, lying and stealing are wrong, punishable by expulsion from school, and yet allowing a President to get away with an apology for a "lapse in judgement, "translated now into Tagalog as a retrospective "Ay, mali pala," oops, I erred.
Responding to the CBCP challenge will take many forms. Many of us in educational institutions and the mass media will continue with our calls to resign, not because they will make her resign but because our voices, while few right now and in the wilderness, are needed if we are to remain credible with our young.
Our voices, too, might help to embolden those who are waiting, hesitant about coming out with more expos's. And to Vice President Noli de Castro and others waiting in the wings, the louder the voices, the sterner the warning to them: if and when they do assume power, it will no longer be as easy for them to get away with corruption.
In Western chess, as end game approaches, the remaining pieces on the board all become indispensable. What we make of ourselves-dispensable pawns or rooks or knights or bishops, maybe even queens-depends on how we take up the challenge posed by the moral gambits.
(c)2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
AFP WARNED AGAINST ABETTING EROTICISM OF VIOLENCE
AFP & PNP should put policy in practice by not disrupting and breaking up peaceful assemblies.
Date: July 12, 2005
Ref: Omeng / (02) 5526731
http://www.nenepimentel.org
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today challenged the Armed Forces and the National Police to resist the temptation of succumbing to the "eroticism of violence" and to allow the people to freely exercise their freedom of assembly and speech.
Pimentel said the holding of a major protest rally by the mainstream opposition and multisectoral groups in Makati City on Wednesday will serve as a litmus test to the policy laid down by Gen. Efren Abu, Chief-of-Staff, that the military will not intervene in the crisis but will keep its sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and protect the people and leave the current political exercise to politicians.
During an AFP command conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City last week, Gen. Abu declared: "The soldier has the duty to protect this political exercise. He is not expected to intervene in it. To do so would betray the trust given to him by the State.
"Pimentel urged the AFP to put this policy in practice by not disrupting and breaking up peaceful marches and rallies which are among the means by which the people can openly express their views and grievances.
"As guardians of the rights of the people, the AFP should allow thepeople to speak and demonstrate freely," he said. I am afraid that it is easier to engage in the forcible use of state power to suppress rather than uphold unorthodox views of the people.
The minority leader said government troops should be deployed in the vicinity of the mass actions only to maintain law and order and to prevent any outbreak of violence.
Pimentel bewailed the fact that the Armed Forces and the National Police, acting upon orders of Malacañang, had employed scary tactics by dispersing protest rallies even in freedom parks in blatant disregard for the people's constitutional right to assembly and speech and to redress of legitimate grievances.
As Jacobo Timerman, the eminent political dissident warned of the escalating violence that engulfed his native Argentina in the '70s, "no one is immune to episodes of violence and terrorism, yet, it should be possible at least to avoid a situation in which terrorism and violence are the sole creative potential, the sole imaginative emotional, erotic expression of the nation."
He said even local chief executives have allowed themselves to be unwittingly used by Malacañang to suppress these sacrosanct rights by denying applications for rally permits based on whimsical and illogical reasons.
Pimentel also reiterated his appeal to the army and the police to take steps to neutralize any attempt by extremist groups to prevent a peaceful transition to a new government.
"We call on the military and police to guard against saboteurs from their own ranks or elsewhere who might do a Marcos pre-martial law scenario," he said.
Pimentel said potential troubles could emanate from elements within the military and police who may be in league with certain groups in pursuing their own political agenda. They should avoid doing a fake ambush like that of the car of the then Minister of Defense (nowSenator) Juan Ponce Enrile that triggered the imposition of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972.
He said the threat of a military coup, revolution and other extra-constitutional methods of seizing power could be averted if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President de Castro will voluntarily resign and pave the way for a bloodless change in nation's leadership.
Date: July 12, 2005
Ref: Omeng / (02) 5526731
http://www.nenepimentel.org
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today challenged the Armed Forces and the National Police to resist the temptation of succumbing to the "eroticism of violence" and to allow the people to freely exercise their freedom of assembly and speech.
Pimentel said the holding of a major protest rally by the mainstream opposition and multisectoral groups in Makati City on Wednesday will serve as a litmus test to the policy laid down by Gen. Efren Abu, Chief-of-Staff, that the military will not intervene in the crisis but will keep its sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and protect the people and leave the current political exercise to politicians.
During an AFP command conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City last week, Gen. Abu declared: "The soldier has the duty to protect this political exercise. He is not expected to intervene in it. To do so would betray the trust given to him by the State.
"Pimentel urged the AFP to put this policy in practice by not disrupting and breaking up peaceful marches and rallies which are among the means by which the people can openly express their views and grievances.
"As guardians of the rights of the people, the AFP should allow thepeople to speak and demonstrate freely," he said. I am afraid that it is easier to engage in the forcible use of state power to suppress rather than uphold unorthodox views of the people.
The minority leader said government troops should be deployed in the vicinity of the mass actions only to maintain law and order and to prevent any outbreak of violence.
Pimentel bewailed the fact that the Armed Forces and the National Police, acting upon orders of Malacañang, had employed scary tactics by dispersing protest rallies even in freedom parks in blatant disregard for the people's constitutional right to assembly and speech and to redress of legitimate grievances.
As Jacobo Timerman, the eminent political dissident warned of the escalating violence that engulfed his native Argentina in the '70s, "no one is immune to episodes of violence and terrorism, yet, it should be possible at least to avoid a situation in which terrorism and violence are the sole creative potential, the sole imaginative emotional, erotic expression of the nation."
He said even local chief executives have allowed themselves to be unwittingly used by Malacañang to suppress these sacrosanct rights by denying applications for rally permits based on whimsical and illogical reasons.
Pimentel also reiterated his appeal to the army and the police to take steps to neutralize any attempt by extremist groups to prevent a peaceful transition to a new government.
"We call on the military and police to guard against saboteurs from their own ranks or elsewhere who might do a Marcos pre-martial law scenario," he said.
Pimentel said potential troubles could emanate from elements within the military and police who may be in league with certain groups in pursuing their own political agenda. They should avoid doing a fake ambush like that of the car of the then Minister of Defense (nowSenator) Juan Ponce Enrile that triggered the imposition of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972.
He said the threat of a military coup, revolution and other extra-constitutional methods of seizing power could be averted if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President de Castro will voluntarily resign and pave the way for a bloodless change in nation's leadership.
Monday, July 11, 2005
The People Are Ready for Bold Reforms
Macapagal-Arroyo’s own political allies who have asked her to resign the presidency now pit themselves against the clamor for a people’s transitional governing council. Not that their call for resignation is a retrogressive move; it’s simply that they loathe the day the aroused masses may suddenly take the reins of government.
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
At this early, the growing clamor to install a people’s transitional governing council upon the resignation or ouster of embattled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo faces an orchestrated resistance from factions of the country’s ruling elite. These factions, led by former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, Senate President Franklin Drilon, other political parties, and the business elite – all traditional allies of Macapagal-Arroyo broke their silence last week and asked the incumbent president to step down.
Another former president and armed forces chief, Fidel V. Ramos, took a wavering position by asking Macapagal-Arroyo to stay on as “caretaker president” for one year. Within the year, a constituent assembly would be convened that would amend the constitution and adopt a parliamentary form of government. Elections will be held in May 2006.
Ramos’ proposal differs from that of Cojuangco-Aquino, Drilon and company who want a “constitutional succession” that would name Vice President Noli de Castro as the new president.
All agree, however, that these measures would ensure a smooth transition in the presidency and avoid the acrimonious impeachment or people power that have unseated two presidents – Joseph E. Estrada in 2001 and before him, Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986.
Before they made the decision, these national figures and groups had supported Macapagal-Arroyo who is accused of stealing the presidency in the May 2004 polls and of connections to jueteng (illegal numbers game) lords before she became president.
Their plea for the president’s resignation coincided with the resignation of at least 10 members of the cabinet who also called for the turnover of power to De Castro. A day earlier, they were stunned by Macapagal-Arroyo who, instead of herself resigning, used them as sacrificial lambs by asking them to quit their cabinet posts so that, she claimed, she could start a much-needed reform program. In a news conference, the cabinet secretaries chorused that the chief executive is already unable to govern and that she should go in order to avert a political crisis.
Explanations
Coming from elements who apparently benefited from the illegitimate presidency of Macapagal-Arroyo - with Cojuangco-Aquino’s 6,000-ha hacienda itself protected by the president’s labor, police and military forces in the ongoing workers’ strike that saw the massacre of seven strikers and the extra-judicial execution of several others - one is tempted to search for explanations.
Leaders of mass organizations identified with the oust-Gloria movement have a common reaction to this sudden move by the former allies of Macapagal-Arroyo: To pre-empt another people power revolt and the formation of a proposed people’s governing transition council.
Indeed, if the incumbent president finally takes the “supreme sacrifice” of stepping down, then she would be succeeded by De Castro, a protégé of the Lopez oligarchs, with either Drilon, House Speaker Jose de Venecia or Sen. Manny Villar appointed as vice president. Everybody will be happy, the new administration will govern, Congress will continue with its legislative job, so too would be the judiciary. Close associates of Macapagal-Arroyo will be happy too – she would have been saved from a possible impeachment or from suffering the disgrace of being booted out of power by a people’s uprising and joining Estrada in his detention in Tanay, Rizal.
People wonder why they, including the incumbent president, invoke the constitution when it suits them but thrash it like garbage when it does not. Cojuangco-Aquino became president through extra-constitutional means in 1986. Impeachment – a constitutional proceeding – collapsed in the plunder case against Estrada and this sparked the extra-constitutional uprising that transferred power to Macapagal-Arroyo. Among many flawed policies, Cojuangco-Aquino saw the emasculation of land reform whereas the constitution pledged justice for the poor; Ramos violated the constitution by signing the onerous Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States allowing the return of U.S. forces and military facilities. And now Macapagal-Arroyo stands accused of heinous crimes under the constitution and at least four other legal codes.
As of press time, however, Macapagal-Arroyo is holding her fort and is about to name a new cabinet. She has dared her critics to go ahead and impeach her, assuming that she still enjoys a clear majority in both the House – where the impeachment will be initiated – and the Senate, where she will be tried. But as events are unfolding, she might not be able to muster enough support in Congress, either.
A misreading
But members of the ruling elite are again misreading the public pulse. Rather, they refuse to believe that many Filipinos have had enough of being ruled by corrupt presidents and of the entire apparatuses that also reek of corruption and other malfeasance. Credible public opinion surveys suggest that not only do most Filipinos see a bleak future under the present political and economic dispensation, an increasing number of them (at least 12 percent last year) are also open to changing the whole system of governance. These figures would be higher today.
Apparently, the traditional figures’ push for a “constitutional succession” is motivated now by their own proprietary considerations to preserve the institutions of governance – the presidency, Congress and judiciary. Their own economic and political interests prospered under these institutions at the expense, however, of the people’s welfare. They are no different from Ramos and other charter change advocates who believe that the solution to the country’s ills lies in shifting to a parliamentary system even if this modality only seeks to preserve or rehabilitate the rule by the elite. Or even its other intention is to resurrect an authoritarian state.
More than this, they simply loathe the day when the masses begin to exercise their sovereign and collective will to not only topple a president but to overhaul the rotten political system. They aim to preempt the formation of a people’s transition governing council for unity and reform – an idea that is fast catching fire among many Filipinos representing the basic masses as well as significant segments of the middle class and other sectors.
Now being articulated by mass leaders, the progressive party-list bloc in Congress and progressive elements among the academe, church, lawyers, students and even the military institution, the people’s council will be comprised of patriotic and pro-people figures known for their integrity and competence in political leadership. They will also be comprised of democratic forces and progressive elements in the opposition parties who are in the forefront of the oust-Arroyo struggle.
In effect, the council as envisioned will arise from the multitudes of people especially organizations with broad mass constituencies of workers, farmers and urban poor who are instrumental in the ouster of the incumbent discredited president.
Urgent tasks
The council will be tasked with drafting a new patriotic and progressive constitution and call for genuine elections thereafter. Its short-term tasks are articulated by the party-list Bayan Muna (people first) which has been one of the leading lights in the ouster of Estrada and in the current campaign to force Macapagal-Arroyo out of power.
The council’s urgent tasks include: to investigate the involvement and culpability of Macapagal-Arroyo, elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, military officials and others involved in electoral fruit and deceit; prosecute cases of graft and corruption involving the Macapagal-Arroyos and other government officials; institute meaningful electoral and political reforms; render justice and indemnify victims of human rights violations and ensure the respect and protection of civil liberties; resume the peace process with the Moro and Communist revolutionary groups by fulfilling all existing requirements; solve the fiscal crisis by canceling or repudiating the country’s onerous debts; protect the country from the ravages of free market globalization and reversing the disastrous structural adjustment programs imposed by the country’s creditors. Bulatlat
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
At this early, the growing clamor to install a people’s transitional governing council upon the resignation or ouster of embattled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo faces an orchestrated resistance from factions of the country’s ruling elite. These factions, led by former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, Senate President Franklin Drilon, other political parties, and the business elite – all traditional allies of Macapagal-Arroyo broke their silence last week and asked the incumbent president to step down.
Another former president and armed forces chief, Fidel V. Ramos, took a wavering position by asking Macapagal-Arroyo to stay on as “caretaker president” for one year. Within the year, a constituent assembly would be convened that would amend the constitution and adopt a parliamentary form of government. Elections will be held in May 2006.
Ramos’ proposal differs from that of Cojuangco-Aquino, Drilon and company who want a “constitutional succession” that would name Vice President Noli de Castro as the new president.
All agree, however, that these measures would ensure a smooth transition in the presidency and avoid the acrimonious impeachment or people power that have unseated two presidents – Joseph E. Estrada in 2001 and before him, Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986.
Before they made the decision, these national figures and groups had supported Macapagal-Arroyo who is accused of stealing the presidency in the May 2004 polls and of connections to jueteng (illegal numbers game) lords before she became president.
Their plea for the president’s resignation coincided with the resignation of at least 10 members of the cabinet who also called for the turnover of power to De Castro. A day earlier, they were stunned by Macapagal-Arroyo who, instead of herself resigning, used them as sacrificial lambs by asking them to quit their cabinet posts so that, she claimed, she could start a much-needed reform program. In a news conference, the cabinet secretaries chorused that the chief executive is already unable to govern and that she should go in order to avert a political crisis.
Explanations
Coming from elements who apparently benefited from the illegitimate presidency of Macapagal-Arroyo - with Cojuangco-Aquino’s 6,000-ha hacienda itself protected by the president’s labor, police and military forces in the ongoing workers’ strike that saw the massacre of seven strikers and the extra-judicial execution of several others - one is tempted to search for explanations.
Leaders of mass organizations identified with the oust-Gloria movement have a common reaction to this sudden move by the former allies of Macapagal-Arroyo: To pre-empt another people power revolt and the formation of a proposed people’s governing transition council.
Indeed, if the incumbent president finally takes the “supreme sacrifice” of stepping down, then she would be succeeded by De Castro, a protégé of the Lopez oligarchs, with either Drilon, House Speaker Jose de Venecia or Sen. Manny Villar appointed as vice president. Everybody will be happy, the new administration will govern, Congress will continue with its legislative job, so too would be the judiciary. Close associates of Macapagal-Arroyo will be happy too – she would have been saved from a possible impeachment or from suffering the disgrace of being booted out of power by a people’s uprising and joining Estrada in his detention in Tanay, Rizal.
People wonder why they, including the incumbent president, invoke the constitution when it suits them but thrash it like garbage when it does not. Cojuangco-Aquino became president through extra-constitutional means in 1986. Impeachment – a constitutional proceeding – collapsed in the plunder case against Estrada and this sparked the extra-constitutional uprising that transferred power to Macapagal-Arroyo. Among many flawed policies, Cojuangco-Aquino saw the emasculation of land reform whereas the constitution pledged justice for the poor; Ramos violated the constitution by signing the onerous Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States allowing the return of U.S. forces and military facilities. And now Macapagal-Arroyo stands accused of heinous crimes under the constitution and at least four other legal codes.
As of press time, however, Macapagal-Arroyo is holding her fort and is about to name a new cabinet. She has dared her critics to go ahead and impeach her, assuming that she still enjoys a clear majority in both the House – where the impeachment will be initiated – and the Senate, where she will be tried. But as events are unfolding, she might not be able to muster enough support in Congress, either.
A misreading
But members of the ruling elite are again misreading the public pulse. Rather, they refuse to believe that many Filipinos have had enough of being ruled by corrupt presidents and of the entire apparatuses that also reek of corruption and other malfeasance. Credible public opinion surveys suggest that not only do most Filipinos see a bleak future under the present political and economic dispensation, an increasing number of them (at least 12 percent last year) are also open to changing the whole system of governance. These figures would be higher today.
Apparently, the traditional figures’ push for a “constitutional succession” is motivated now by their own proprietary considerations to preserve the institutions of governance – the presidency, Congress and judiciary. Their own economic and political interests prospered under these institutions at the expense, however, of the people’s welfare. They are no different from Ramos and other charter change advocates who believe that the solution to the country’s ills lies in shifting to a parliamentary system even if this modality only seeks to preserve or rehabilitate the rule by the elite. Or even its other intention is to resurrect an authoritarian state.
More than this, they simply loathe the day when the masses begin to exercise their sovereign and collective will to not only topple a president but to overhaul the rotten political system. They aim to preempt the formation of a people’s transition governing council for unity and reform – an idea that is fast catching fire among many Filipinos representing the basic masses as well as significant segments of the middle class and other sectors.
Now being articulated by mass leaders, the progressive party-list bloc in Congress and progressive elements among the academe, church, lawyers, students and even the military institution, the people’s council will be comprised of patriotic and pro-people figures known for their integrity and competence in political leadership. They will also be comprised of democratic forces and progressive elements in the opposition parties who are in the forefront of the oust-Arroyo struggle.
In effect, the council as envisioned will arise from the multitudes of people especially organizations with broad mass constituencies of workers, farmers and urban poor who are instrumental in the ouster of the incumbent discredited president.
Urgent tasks
The council will be tasked with drafting a new patriotic and progressive constitution and call for genuine elections thereafter. Its short-term tasks are articulated by the party-list Bayan Muna (people first) which has been one of the leading lights in the ouster of Estrada and in the current campaign to force Macapagal-Arroyo out of power.
The council’s urgent tasks include: to investigate the involvement and culpability of Macapagal-Arroyo, elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, military officials and others involved in electoral fruit and deceit; prosecute cases of graft and corruption involving the Macapagal-Arroyos and other government officials; institute meaningful electoral and political reforms; render justice and indemnify victims of human rights violations and ensure the respect and protection of civil liberties; resume the peace process with the Moro and Communist revolutionary groups by fulfilling all existing requirements; solve the fiscal crisis by canceling or repudiating the country’s onerous debts; protect the country from the ravages of free market globalization and reversing the disastrous structural adjustment programs imposed by the country’s creditors. Bulatlat
People Power Constitutional, Lawyers’ Group Says
The Committee for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) July 8 said it finds without legal and constitutional basis the threats by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against mass actions calling for her to step down.
BY BULATLAT
The Committee for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) said July 9 it finds without legal and constitutional basis the threats by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against massactions calling for her to step down.
Lawyer Neri Javier Colmenares, CODAL spokesperson, said that “Not only is thisassertion supported by the Constitutional recognition that ‘sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them’” but the Supreme Court has declared so in the case of Estrada vs Arroyo, the very case used by President Arroyo to legitimize her government. Colmenares cited the Supreme Court ruling of March 2, 2001 that what took place at EDSA from Jan. 16 to 20, 2001 was not a revolution but the peaceful expression of popular will.
“The operative fact which enabled Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assume the presidency was the fact that there was a crisis, nay a vacuum, in the executive leadership which made the government rife for seizure by lawless elements,” the Supreme Court said. The camp of former President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted through a popular uprising during that period, had challenged the legality of Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency, saying she had assumed power by unconstitutional means.
Last week, however, Malacañang spokespersons branded calls for Arroyo’s resignation or ouster as “unconstitutional.” They have called on the people to follow the rule of law and not resort to “extra-constitutional” alternatives.
CODAL asserts that the call of former President Cory Aquino and others for President Arroyo to step down cannot be deemed a “threat to democratic principles and constitutional foundations,” as claimed by Mrs. Arroyo. This demand is the exercise of a legitimate right and not an extra-constitutional act, the lawyers’ group argues.
“The people should not be threatened by President Arroyo's intimidation. A government that has brazenly violated the Constitution's bill of rights, its provisions on taxation and deployment of foreign troops has no moral authority to lecture the people on the need to abide by the Constitution", Colmenares added.
CODAL also said that National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco's failure to investigate those who may have committed election offenses in the “Hello Garci'” tape is a dereliction of his duty as NBI director and he, like the President, may be tried for violating Art. 208 of the Revised Penal Code for “tolerating the commission of offenses.”
CODAL further believes that the proposal of former President Fidel Ramos for a charter change does not address the charge that the President violated the country’s penal laws and the 1987 Constitution. The lawyers’ group is calling on the President and her Cabinet to step down and for the institution of “comprehensive and lasting social reforms” under a framework which “ensures the people’s effective participation in governance.”
BY BULATLAT
The Committee for the Defense of Lawyers (CODAL) said July 9 it finds without legal and constitutional basis the threats by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against massactions calling for her to step down.
Lawyer Neri Javier Colmenares, CODAL spokesperson, said that “Not only is thisassertion supported by the Constitutional recognition that ‘sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them’” but the Supreme Court has declared so in the case of Estrada vs Arroyo, the very case used by President Arroyo to legitimize her government. Colmenares cited the Supreme Court ruling of March 2, 2001 that what took place at EDSA from Jan. 16 to 20, 2001 was not a revolution but the peaceful expression of popular will.
“The operative fact which enabled Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assume the presidency was the fact that there was a crisis, nay a vacuum, in the executive leadership which made the government rife for seizure by lawless elements,” the Supreme Court said. The camp of former President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted through a popular uprising during that period, had challenged the legality of Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency, saying she had assumed power by unconstitutional means.
Last week, however, Malacañang spokespersons branded calls for Arroyo’s resignation or ouster as “unconstitutional.” They have called on the people to follow the rule of law and not resort to “extra-constitutional” alternatives.
CODAL asserts that the call of former President Cory Aquino and others for President Arroyo to step down cannot be deemed a “threat to democratic principles and constitutional foundations,” as claimed by Mrs. Arroyo. This demand is the exercise of a legitimate right and not an extra-constitutional act, the lawyers’ group argues.
“The people should not be threatened by President Arroyo's intimidation. A government that has brazenly violated the Constitution's bill of rights, its provisions on taxation and deployment of foreign troops has no moral authority to lecture the people on the need to abide by the Constitution", Colmenares added.
CODAL also said that National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco's failure to investigate those who may have committed election offenses in the “Hello Garci'” tape is a dereliction of his duty as NBI director and he, like the President, may be tried for violating Art. 208 of the Revised Penal Code for “tolerating the commission of offenses.”
CODAL further believes that the proposal of former President Fidel Ramos for a charter change does not address the charge that the President violated the country’s penal laws and the 1987 Constitution. The lawyers’ group is calling on the President and her Cabinet to step down and for the institution of “comprehensive and lasting social reforms” under a framework which “ensures the people’s effective participation in governance.”
Saturday, July 09, 2005
ARROYO REGIME IS DISINTEGRATING BUT STILL HAS A FEW TRICKS TO PLAY
Press Statement 9 July 2005
By: Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
The Arroyo regime is visibly cracking up and disintegrating under the pressure of the broad united front of opposition political parties, mass organizations, professional organizations, church people, business groups, retired military and police officers and other forces demanding the resignation or ouster of Gloria M. Arroyo from her usurped position as president of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
After consultation with Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, former GRP president Corazon Aquino has categorically called for the resignation of Arroyo and her replacement by the vice-president, Noli de Castro. In turn, the latter has promptly begun to drum up his claims to competence as her successor. Through his most trusted agents, he has proceeded discreetly to contact military and police officers for support.
The ruling coalition is breaking up. The Liberal Party has taken the lead in calling for the resignation of Arroyo. Ten cabinet members and high officials of the Arroyo regime have resigned and in turn have demanded that Arroyo resign, instead of requiring all cabinet members to resign. They seem to be acting in coordination with church and business groups which have demanded the resignation of Arroyo.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has declared that units of the New People's Army (NPA) are keeping away from urban population centers in order to encourage the broad masses of the people to march and rally against the regime. The NPA is concentrating on waging tactical offensives in the countryside.
At least four significant groups of military officers have welcomed the CPP declaration and have pledged to uphold civilian supremacy, respect the democratic rights of the people and withdraw support from Arroyo upon sight of at least 500,000 people in the national capital region.
The chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has declared that the military would respect the democratic rights of the people to assemble and speak. But the chief of the Philippine National Police is expressing extreme loyalty to Arroyo and hostility towards the people who are exercising their rights in opposition to the regime.
US officials at various levels have announced that any change of government in the Philippine must follow the "constitutional path" and "rule of law" and have continued to express support for the Arroyo regime. Thus, the regime boasts that it will stay in power so long as it keeps US support. At the same time, some pro-US elements in the conservative opposition parties claim that Arroyo has lost that support.
While the regime is definitely disintegrating, Arroyo can still play a few tricks in ways more serious than apologizing for a "lapse injudgment" and "sending away" her husband and her son. She continues to proclaim that she will not resign. The forces of the broad united front are therefore forewarned not to become complacent but to be more resolute and militant than ever in arousing and mobilizing the people in their millions and in adopting a wide range of tactics to demonstrate the regime's inability to govern.
Plans are afoot for Arroyo to stage mass rallies in her favor, especially in some provinces where governors and mayors remain as her allies, and to use the Philippine National Police to suppress mass rallies that are not granted permits by pro-Arroyo local authorities. By these plans Arroyo is taking a gamble that is likely to inflame civil strife. The very crowds she tries to rally can also turn against her as in the Ceaucescu example in Romania.
As the public clamor for resignation or ouster continues to grow and her regime becomes untenable, Arroyo is supposed to have two possible courses of action. One is to take a leave of absence and have the vice-president Noli de Castro perform the functions of the presidency. Another is for her to become the "caretaker president", who will follow a script prepared by former president Fidel V. Ramos, Speaker Jose de Venecia and some smart guys of Lakas-NUCD.
The script entrusts the "caretaker president" with the task of letting a "high commission" to go through the motion of investigating some corruption scandals, the two houses of Congress to become a constituent assembly that will make constitutional amendments for satisfying the US and the local exploiting classes and for adopting a federal and parliamentary system and the parliamentary elections to take place in 2006.
However, the most that Arroyo can do is to gain a little more time on her political death bed. She has politically and morally suffered a fatal wound by being caught in the act of electoral fraud and stealing the GRP presidency. The tapes are the incontrovertible proof of her grave crime before the court of public opinion.
They expose the immorality and illegitimacy of Arroyo's usurpation of power. They have already kindled the fire that is fuelled by the wide and deep going social discontent of the people due to the crisis of the ruling system and that has the potential of burning down not only the political house of Arroyo but the entire ruling system of big compradors and landlords.
Since after the overthrow of Estrada in 2001, the institutions and stalwarts of the ruling system have considered the phenomena of mass uprisings repeatedly overthrowing a president as being very risky for the entire ruling system. They have been frightened by the expressed CPP view that the revolutionary forces and people strengthen themselves by overthrowing one ruling clique after another until they gain enough strength to overthrow the entire ruling system. In reaction, the apologists of the ruling system have invented the myth that the people are tired of mass uprisings.
But the ruling system has a problem in keeping a detested president long in power. The longer a president like Arroyo stays in power, the more rotten and despicable she makes the system to the increasingly exploited and oppressed people. And whoever is the president, so long as the rotten system persists, the people will detest it and have all the opportunity to strengthen themselves, irrespective of how long or short a president can stay in office.
The broad masses of the people demand that the basic roots of their oppression and exploitation are addressed. They wish to empower themselves against the US and the local exploiting classes that torment and make them suffer. They wish to uphold national sovereignty, conserve the national patrimony, carry out land reform and national industrialization, promote a national, scientific and democratic culture and adopt an independent foreign policy for world peace and development.
The crisis of the ruling system has become so grave that the ruling classes can no longer rule in the old way. The people want are volutionary change of government, in which the toiling masses of workers and peasants obtain and exercise their due share of political power. There are revolutionary forces that can lead the people in the revolutionary process.
Social degradation and political turmoil will continue so long as the ruling system of big compradors and landlords persists. The victoryof the broad united front against the Arroyo regime should lead to the formation of a transition council and a government that accommodate the patriotic and progressive forces of the legal democratic movement and pave the way for the success of peace negotiations with the revolutionary forces and people represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. ###
By: Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
The Arroyo regime is visibly cracking up and disintegrating under the pressure of the broad united front of opposition political parties, mass organizations, professional organizations, church people, business groups, retired military and police officers and other forces demanding the resignation or ouster of Gloria M. Arroyo from her usurped position as president of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
After consultation with Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, former GRP president Corazon Aquino has categorically called for the resignation of Arroyo and her replacement by the vice-president, Noli de Castro. In turn, the latter has promptly begun to drum up his claims to competence as her successor. Through his most trusted agents, he has proceeded discreetly to contact military and police officers for support.
The ruling coalition is breaking up. The Liberal Party has taken the lead in calling for the resignation of Arroyo. Ten cabinet members and high officials of the Arroyo regime have resigned and in turn have demanded that Arroyo resign, instead of requiring all cabinet members to resign. They seem to be acting in coordination with church and business groups which have demanded the resignation of Arroyo.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has declared that units of the New People's Army (NPA) are keeping away from urban population centers in order to encourage the broad masses of the people to march and rally against the regime. The NPA is concentrating on waging tactical offensives in the countryside.
At least four significant groups of military officers have welcomed the CPP declaration and have pledged to uphold civilian supremacy, respect the democratic rights of the people and withdraw support from Arroyo upon sight of at least 500,000 people in the national capital region.
The chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has declared that the military would respect the democratic rights of the people to assemble and speak. But the chief of the Philippine National Police is expressing extreme loyalty to Arroyo and hostility towards the people who are exercising their rights in opposition to the regime.
US officials at various levels have announced that any change of government in the Philippine must follow the "constitutional path" and "rule of law" and have continued to express support for the Arroyo regime. Thus, the regime boasts that it will stay in power so long as it keeps US support. At the same time, some pro-US elements in the conservative opposition parties claim that Arroyo has lost that support.
While the regime is definitely disintegrating, Arroyo can still play a few tricks in ways more serious than apologizing for a "lapse injudgment" and "sending away" her husband and her son. She continues to proclaim that she will not resign. The forces of the broad united front are therefore forewarned not to become complacent but to be more resolute and militant than ever in arousing and mobilizing the people in their millions and in adopting a wide range of tactics to demonstrate the regime's inability to govern.
Plans are afoot for Arroyo to stage mass rallies in her favor, especially in some provinces where governors and mayors remain as her allies, and to use the Philippine National Police to suppress mass rallies that are not granted permits by pro-Arroyo local authorities. By these plans Arroyo is taking a gamble that is likely to inflame civil strife. The very crowds she tries to rally can also turn against her as in the Ceaucescu example in Romania.
As the public clamor for resignation or ouster continues to grow and her regime becomes untenable, Arroyo is supposed to have two possible courses of action. One is to take a leave of absence and have the vice-president Noli de Castro perform the functions of the presidency. Another is for her to become the "caretaker president", who will follow a script prepared by former president Fidel V. Ramos, Speaker Jose de Venecia and some smart guys of Lakas-NUCD.
The script entrusts the "caretaker president" with the task of letting a "high commission" to go through the motion of investigating some corruption scandals, the two houses of Congress to become a constituent assembly that will make constitutional amendments for satisfying the US and the local exploiting classes and for adopting a federal and parliamentary system and the parliamentary elections to take place in 2006.
However, the most that Arroyo can do is to gain a little more time on her political death bed. She has politically and morally suffered a fatal wound by being caught in the act of electoral fraud and stealing the GRP presidency. The tapes are the incontrovertible proof of her grave crime before the court of public opinion.
They expose the immorality and illegitimacy of Arroyo's usurpation of power. They have already kindled the fire that is fuelled by the wide and deep going social discontent of the people due to the crisis of the ruling system and that has the potential of burning down not only the political house of Arroyo but the entire ruling system of big compradors and landlords.
Since after the overthrow of Estrada in 2001, the institutions and stalwarts of the ruling system have considered the phenomena of mass uprisings repeatedly overthrowing a president as being very risky for the entire ruling system. They have been frightened by the expressed CPP view that the revolutionary forces and people strengthen themselves by overthrowing one ruling clique after another until they gain enough strength to overthrow the entire ruling system. In reaction, the apologists of the ruling system have invented the myth that the people are tired of mass uprisings.
But the ruling system has a problem in keeping a detested president long in power. The longer a president like Arroyo stays in power, the more rotten and despicable she makes the system to the increasingly exploited and oppressed people. And whoever is the president, so long as the rotten system persists, the people will detest it and have all the opportunity to strengthen themselves, irrespective of how long or short a president can stay in office.
The broad masses of the people demand that the basic roots of their oppression and exploitation are addressed. They wish to empower themselves against the US and the local exploiting classes that torment and make them suffer. They wish to uphold national sovereignty, conserve the national patrimony, carry out land reform and national industrialization, promote a national, scientific and democratic culture and adopt an independent foreign policy for world peace and development.
The crisis of the ruling system has become so grave that the ruling classes can no longer rule in the old way. The people want are volutionary change of government, in which the toiling masses of workers and peasants obtain and exercise their due share of political power. There are revolutionary forces that can lead the people in the revolutionary process.
Social degradation and political turmoil will continue so long as the ruling system of big compradors and landlords persists. The victoryof the broad united front against the Arroyo regime should lead to the formation of a transition council and a government that accommodate the patriotic and progressive forces of the legal democratic movement and pave the way for the success of peace negotiations with the revolutionary forces and people represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. ###
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Stop U.S. Intervention In The Philippines
by: Philippines Cultural Studies Center
Friday, Jul. 01, 2005 at 5:14 AM
philcsc1@yahoo.com
Signs of U.S. intervention in the political crisis in the Philippines are surfacing fast. Lessons need to be drawn from the mistakes and failures of People Power 1 and People Power 2. Systemic change is needed, not simply change in personnel. People Power 3 need not mimic the first two--otherwise, everything remains the same, even worse.
STOP U.S. MANIPULATION OF ARROYO'S DOWNFALL AND U.S. INTERVENTION IN CHOOSING HER SUCCESSOR
Incontrovertible signs from Washington and elsewhere indicate that theBush Administration and its reactionary cabal have already instructed their local agents in Manila to replace Arroyo with one of the elite factions, together with a bloc of traditional military-business groups. This is routine maneuver for the US State Department and Pentagon. As in the February 1986 overthrow of Marcos, their agents will use both normal and violent means to maintain its hegemony in its neocolony, particularly when its Mindanao military/political base is at stake.
The Philippines of course has historically been pivotal toUS. projection of its military power in Asia and the Middle East. Besides, Filipinos are famous worldwide for being 200% Americanized and martyrs for "Americanism" everywhere.
Washington is now plagued with the mounting disasters of the war inIraq and Afghanistan. Public resistance to the on going war is increasing, especially among military families and business sectors. Meanwhile, the challenges of Iran, North Korea, and of course China, not to mention Chavez's Venezuela and the insurgents in Colombia, Nepal, and elsewhere, are extremely worrisome to the corporate power elite.
To be sure, the Philippines is not comparable to oil-rich Indonesia ore ven touristy Thailand. Nonetheless, the U.S. hegemonic bloc is extremely fearful that a nationalist, nay a left-wing, alternative may take advantage of the chronic weakness of the Filipino oligarchy ridden with corruption, internal antagonisms, and sycophancy to corporate U.S. and foreign interests. Preparations to transfer the Okinawa operations to the Philippines are being expedited even as the militarization of Japan proceeds without let-up. The Philippines also provides about 10 million migrant contract workers to service corporate globalization around the planet (for example, building Guantanamo prison-cells and cleaning the barracks of the troops inIraq).
After September 11, 2001, the New People's Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines were promptly declared "terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State Department. This is meant to paralyze any international support for the nationalist insurgency. The millions of Filipinos abroad might be a support base for the NPA and the National Democratic Front—just as the Islamic nations supported the Moro National Liberation Front during the Marcos dictatorship. The systematic media exploitation of the Abu Sayaff as somehow comparable in scale to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, together with its linking of the Abu Sayaff with left-wing and nationalist dissent, has conditioned the U.S. public to recent military incursions ("exercises") in the Philippines. It has allowed Bush and his generals to refurbish the politically bankrupt Arroyo and the AFP as part of their united front against opponents of U.S. neocolonial encroachment wherever profits can be made.
Ever since IBON and other pollsters began documenting the decline of public support for Arroyo amid the jueteng scandals involving her family, the U.S. has begun to follow their tested modus operandi on"regime change." They have consulted with opposition politicians, the Catholic Church, the Judiciary, and of course their military operatives. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo recently solicited the backing of key U.S. lawmakers for Arroyo such as Republican Senator Thad Cochran, chair of the US Senate Appropriations Committee; Republican Senators Robert Bennett of Utah and Jim Kolbe of Arizona, as well as Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California (where the majority of Filipino Americans reside). Romulo also got the support of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, former adviser to President Bush, and one of the shrewd authors of the project to resuscitate the obsolescent American Empire in the post-Cold War epoch.
A revealing interview of US diplomat Karen Kelley, which appeared in the online Inquirer (reported by Agence France Press, June 29, 2005), suggests the duplicitous mode of preparing for "regime change" as seen from the US Embassy in Manila. While former lackeys of Arroyo are abandoning ship and jumping into the Susan Roces bandwagon, the U.S. poses to defend orderly transition, which means appearing to endorse transparency and accountability while engaged in cloak-and-dagger shenanigans to preserve business and military interests in their former "showcase of democracy" in Asia. The case of "Cold Warriors" Ramon Magsaysay, Benigno Aquino, and Col. Edward Lansdale of the notorious Phoenix program in Vietnam easily come to mind.
Given the pre-emptive and unconscionable means used by globalizing capital to prevent any real substantive change in the local power hierarchy, we shouldn't be deceived by all this legalese rhetoric about democracy and freedom. It is necessary for all progressive forces not to rely solely on bureaucratic or parliamentary means to get rid of Arroyo and her business network. The few wealthy families have never relied only on peaceful means to seize power and maintain supremacy. Nor have the bourgeoisie anywhere in the world. "Civil society" and State as presently constituted only serve to maintain the seemingly "normal" unequal division of power and wealth. We need to be critical of current institutions and practices, and also guard against sectarian dogmatism and opportunist vanguardism. Let the dead bury the dead.
As events in our history have proved, representatives of the ruling class can never represent the genuine long-term interests of the people. Neither Aquino nor Arroyo (who represent sections of the privileged minority) can solve the systemic evils of rampant poverty and unnecessary deaths caused by the unequal division of wealth (in particular, land and other means of production) and the chronic backwardness of the economy due to subservience to U.S. dictates (via World Bank and International Monetary Fund conditionalities). Nor can populist gimmicks tied to Estrada and assorted "social democrats" obsessed with capitalist globalization elsewhere except in thePhilippines, mobilize informed grass-roots support for a thorough going land-reform program, industrialization, a halt to OFW warm-body export policy, and the genocidal war against Moro and indigenous communities.
How can the owners of Hacienda Luisita and the plantations in Negros, Davao, and elsewhere support the loss of their property and class privileges? How can the classes represented by Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo really allow the break-up of feudal privileges and their monopoly of political power in their territories? Behind them stand the corrupt mendacious officers of the AFP and the PNP(notwithstanding the presence of some nationalist middle-level personnel in the ranks), as well as warlords and gangster-vigilante formations sponsored by the CIA.
This is not to exclude individual members of these conservative and reactionary groups from joining the anti-imperialist united front. What we need is adherence to and step-by-step implementation of a tactical and strategic program of nationalist development that will mobilize the masses of workers, peasants, women, youth, professionals, and indigenous communities. We do not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. What is needed? Not a mountain stronghold policy of imposing a party line in a sectarian manner, but a way of unleashing the energies, wit, cunning, and intelligence of the masses to destroy the old structures of oppression and exploitation that have victimized us since the days of Spanish colonialism, and particularly since the missionary agents of U.S. "Benevolent Assimilation" landed on our shores and civilized 1.4 million dead Filipinos.
We need to initiate and explore new radical means of emancipatory transformation. A transitional nationalist and popular-democratic government is needed to prevent the usual trick of using so-called legal procedures that have always reproduced the status quo to restore peace and "business as usual." If we want to avoid repeating the mistakes of People Power I and the delusions of People Power II, we need to rely on a united alliance of armed workers' and peasants' councils, community organizations, existing guerilla forces, and other grass-roots agencies to destroy the mechanisms of imperial domination through the institutions used by the landlords, compradors, bureaucrats and traditional politicians. Otherwise, we will prolong the injustice of the present set-up and the suffering of millions ofFilipinos now and in the future.
Only a massive mobilization of the majority of citizens, of all oppressed and exploited sectors, in particular the Moro people and the tribal communities, can rid us of the evils of the exploitation of labor, political tyranny of the U.S., WB/IMF, and WTO, foreign control of the economy, and the racialized inferiorization of our cultural heritage. We need to arm the masses to defend themselves against the counter-revolutionary violence of the U.S. and its local followers.
A thousand defeats and sacrifices litter the past; is history repeating itself?
But our countrymen who gave their lives fighting against Spanish, U.S. and Japanese colonialisms speak to us from the future, saying: "A new world is possible. It is there for us to win."Let us seize this crisis of the enemy—the oligarchic elite and U.S. imperialism—as an opportunity to advance the national democraticrevolution of the Filipino masses and liberate ourselves from the evils of neocolonialism, racial and gender oppression, commodification, and globalized misery.
KUNG HINDI NGAYON, KAILAN PA? MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT!
By: The DIRECTOR AND STAFF
PHILIPPINES CULTURAL STUDIES CENTER
Friday, Jul. 01, 2005 at 5:14 AM
philcsc1@yahoo.com
Signs of U.S. intervention in the political crisis in the Philippines are surfacing fast. Lessons need to be drawn from the mistakes and failures of People Power 1 and People Power 2. Systemic change is needed, not simply change in personnel. People Power 3 need not mimic the first two--otherwise, everything remains the same, even worse.
STOP U.S. MANIPULATION OF ARROYO'S DOWNFALL AND U.S. INTERVENTION IN CHOOSING HER SUCCESSOR
Incontrovertible signs from Washington and elsewhere indicate that theBush Administration and its reactionary cabal have already instructed their local agents in Manila to replace Arroyo with one of the elite factions, together with a bloc of traditional military-business groups. This is routine maneuver for the US State Department and Pentagon. As in the February 1986 overthrow of Marcos, their agents will use both normal and violent means to maintain its hegemony in its neocolony, particularly when its Mindanao military/political base is at stake.
The Philippines of course has historically been pivotal toUS. projection of its military power in Asia and the Middle East. Besides, Filipinos are famous worldwide for being 200% Americanized and martyrs for "Americanism" everywhere.
Washington is now plagued with the mounting disasters of the war inIraq and Afghanistan. Public resistance to the on going war is increasing, especially among military families and business sectors. Meanwhile, the challenges of Iran, North Korea, and of course China, not to mention Chavez's Venezuela and the insurgents in Colombia, Nepal, and elsewhere, are extremely worrisome to the corporate power elite.
To be sure, the Philippines is not comparable to oil-rich Indonesia ore ven touristy Thailand. Nonetheless, the U.S. hegemonic bloc is extremely fearful that a nationalist, nay a left-wing, alternative may take advantage of the chronic weakness of the Filipino oligarchy ridden with corruption, internal antagonisms, and sycophancy to corporate U.S. and foreign interests. Preparations to transfer the Okinawa operations to the Philippines are being expedited even as the militarization of Japan proceeds without let-up. The Philippines also provides about 10 million migrant contract workers to service corporate globalization around the planet (for example, building Guantanamo prison-cells and cleaning the barracks of the troops inIraq).
After September 11, 2001, the New People's Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines were promptly declared "terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State Department. This is meant to paralyze any international support for the nationalist insurgency. The millions of Filipinos abroad might be a support base for the NPA and the National Democratic Front—just as the Islamic nations supported the Moro National Liberation Front during the Marcos dictatorship. The systematic media exploitation of the Abu Sayaff as somehow comparable in scale to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, together with its linking of the Abu Sayaff with left-wing and nationalist dissent, has conditioned the U.S. public to recent military incursions ("exercises") in the Philippines. It has allowed Bush and his generals to refurbish the politically bankrupt Arroyo and the AFP as part of their united front against opponents of U.S. neocolonial encroachment wherever profits can be made.
Ever since IBON and other pollsters began documenting the decline of public support for Arroyo amid the jueteng scandals involving her family, the U.S. has begun to follow their tested modus operandi on"regime change." They have consulted with opposition politicians, the Catholic Church, the Judiciary, and of course their military operatives. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo recently solicited the backing of key U.S. lawmakers for Arroyo such as Republican Senator Thad Cochran, chair of the US Senate Appropriations Committee; Republican Senators Robert Bennett of Utah and Jim Kolbe of Arizona, as well as Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of California (where the majority of Filipino Americans reside). Romulo also got the support of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, former adviser to President Bush, and one of the shrewd authors of the project to resuscitate the obsolescent American Empire in the post-Cold War epoch.
A revealing interview of US diplomat Karen Kelley, which appeared in the online Inquirer (reported by Agence France Press, June 29, 2005), suggests the duplicitous mode of preparing for "regime change" as seen from the US Embassy in Manila. While former lackeys of Arroyo are abandoning ship and jumping into the Susan Roces bandwagon, the U.S. poses to defend orderly transition, which means appearing to endorse transparency and accountability while engaged in cloak-and-dagger shenanigans to preserve business and military interests in their former "showcase of democracy" in Asia. The case of "Cold Warriors" Ramon Magsaysay, Benigno Aquino, and Col. Edward Lansdale of the notorious Phoenix program in Vietnam easily come to mind.
Given the pre-emptive and unconscionable means used by globalizing capital to prevent any real substantive change in the local power hierarchy, we shouldn't be deceived by all this legalese rhetoric about democracy and freedom. It is necessary for all progressive forces not to rely solely on bureaucratic or parliamentary means to get rid of Arroyo and her business network. The few wealthy families have never relied only on peaceful means to seize power and maintain supremacy. Nor have the bourgeoisie anywhere in the world. "Civil society" and State as presently constituted only serve to maintain the seemingly "normal" unequal division of power and wealth. We need to be critical of current institutions and practices, and also guard against sectarian dogmatism and opportunist vanguardism. Let the dead bury the dead.
As events in our history have proved, representatives of the ruling class can never represent the genuine long-term interests of the people. Neither Aquino nor Arroyo (who represent sections of the privileged minority) can solve the systemic evils of rampant poverty and unnecessary deaths caused by the unequal division of wealth (in particular, land and other means of production) and the chronic backwardness of the economy due to subservience to U.S. dictates (via World Bank and International Monetary Fund conditionalities). Nor can populist gimmicks tied to Estrada and assorted "social democrats" obsessed with capitalist globalization elsewhere except in thePhilippines, mobilize informed grass-roots support for a thorough going land-reform program, industrialization, a halt to OFW warm-body export policy, and the genocidal war against Moro and indigenous communities.
How can the owners of Hacienda Luisita and the plantations in Negros, Davao, and elsewhere support the loss of their property and class privileges? How can the classes represented by Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo really allow the break-up of feudal privileges and their monopoly of political power in their territories? Behind them stand the corrupt mendacious officers of the AFP and the PNP(notwithstanding the presence of some nationalist middle-level personnel in the ranks), as well as warlords and gangster-vigilante formations sponsored by the CIA.
This is not to exclude individual members of these conservative and reactionary groups from joining the anti-imperialist united front. What we need is adherence to and step-by-step implementation of a tactical and strategic program of nationalist development that will mobilize the masses of workers, peasants, women, youth, professionals, and indigenous communities. We do not need to repeat the mistakes of the past. What is needed? Not a mountain stronghold policy of imposing a party line in a sectarian manner, but a way of unleashing the energies, wit, cunning, and intelligence of the masses to destroy the old structures of oppression and exploitation that have victimized us since the days of Spanish colonialism, and particularly since the missionary agents of U.S. "Benevolent Assimilation" landed on our shores and civilized 1.4 million dead Filipinos.
We need to initiate and explore new radical means of emancipatory transformation. A transitional nationalist and popular-democratic government is needed to prevent the usual trick of using so-called legal procedures that have always reproduced the status quo to restore peace and "business as usual." If we want to avoid repeating the mistakes of People Power I and the delusions of People Power II, we need to rely on a united alliance of armed workers' and peasants' councils, community organizations, existing guerilla forces, and other grass-roots agencies to destroy the mechanisms of imperial domination through the institutions used by the landlords, compradors, bureaucrats and traditional politicians. Otherwise, we will prolong the injustice of the present set-up and the suffering of millions ofFilipinos now and in the future.
Only a massive mobilization of the majority of citizens, of all oppressed and exploited sectors, in particular the Moro people and the tribal communities, can rid us of the evils of the exploitation of labor, political tyranny of the U.S., WB/IMF, and WTO, foreign control of the economy, and the racialized inferiorization of our cultural heritage. We need to arm the masses to defend themselves against the counter-revolutionary violence of the U.S. and its local followers.
A thousand defeats and sacrifices litter the past; is history repeating itself?
But our countrymen who gave their lives fighting against Spanish, U.S. and Japanese colonialisms speak to us from the future, saying: "A new world is possible. It is there for us to win."Let us seize this crisis of the enemy—the oligarchic elite and U.S. imperialism—as an opportunity to advance the national democraticrevolution of the Filipino masses and liberate ourselves from the evils of neocolonialism, racial and gender oppression, commodification, and globalized misery.
KUNG HINDI NGAYON, KAILAN PA? MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT!
By: The DIRECTOR AND STAFF
PHILIPPINES CULTURAL STUDIES CENTER
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