Mahirap yan, Mrs. Arroyo. Since majority of the Filipinos want you to resign. I guess they're "destabilizers" too, huh?
Stop the noise, Gloria tells destabilizers
PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday told destabilizers and critics of the administration to stop making noises and instead devote their time and energy to serving the people.
Arroyo, during the Labor Day celebration in Malacañang, said she has always been open and listening to the needs of the people.
She said she hopes her critics would do the same and that destabilizers should stop listening to the "call of self-interest and endless strife."
"To our destabilizers, I say: Leave the people to their work and let the President do her job. To our destabilizers, I say: Stop the noise and start to serve," she said.
I think a better idea would be for you to step down and let somebody else take over. For the good of the country.
Malaya Editorial: More turbulence ahead
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Lito Banayo attended the STOP (Sa Tamang Oras at Paraan) Cha cha movement workshop last friday and wrote about it in his column today.
Conrad de Quiros remembers "Edsa Tres."
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Neal Cruz: Gov't officials and sycophants ganged up on Maria Theresa Pangilinan at the DEBATE show
I WATCHED THE TELEVISION SHOW "Debate" before the weekend, and I was irritated by the way the government officials in the panel pounced on Maria Theresa Pangilinan, the student leader who heckled President Macapagal-Arroyo during the graduation ceremonies at the Cavite State University. The debate's question was: "Which should have priority, the citizen's right to protest or respect for the President?"
The question was, of course, a no-brainer. Surely, a citizen's right to protest comes first. But Rep. Monico Puentevella and Cavite Vice Gov. Jonvic Remulla repeatedly needled Pangilinan, saying respect for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) should have prevented her from shouting "Patalsikin si GMA" (oust GMA) and unfurling banners expressing the same sentiment while the President was delivering her speech.
Where is your respect for the President, they asked the girl who bravely stood her ground and replied that she was expressing an opinion, which was-and still is-her right.
The correct answer to that question should have been: "None!" Respect is earned, not forced. You cannot force others to respect you if you are not respectable. How can you respect anybody caught cheating to "win" the elections? How can you respect somebody who does not fulfill her promises? How can you respect someone who shamelessly and repeatedly violates the Constitution she has sworn to defend? How can you respect anybody who prevents government officials from testifying in investigations that may reveal shenanigans in her administration? How can you respect anybody who is desperately trying to change the Constitution to stay in power?
WORD!
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From PCIJ:
- Arroyo’s charter-change moves copied from the Marcos book
- Cha-cha in Congress déjà vu of impeachment – Rep. Baraquel
- Freedom House reports press freedom decline in RP
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Malacanang brands Cory’s Cha-cha group liars, GMA haters
Malacañang yesterday belittled the STOP (Sa Tamang Oras at Panahon) Cha-cha group of former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, practically calling them “liars and deceivers” whose aim is to force President Arroyo out of office at all costs.
Presidential adviser on political affairs Gabriel Claudio said while they welcome the action of Aquino’s group, they cannot accept its motive behind its campaign.
He added the group is not telling the truth when it claimed the moves to amend the Constitution is for the Arroyo administration to bury the alleged massive fraud in the 2004 elections and extend the President’s term even after 2010.
“It is not the truth when they said the current moves to amend the Constitution are meant to divert people’s attention from the so-called issue of Mrs. Arroyo’s legitimacy in office. That issue has been settled in the minds of the majority of Filipinos who want a stop to the opposition’s noisy and destructive politics so that the nation can move forward,” Claudio said.
“The alleged political crisis over accusations of poll fraud and persist only in the cynical minds of these few oppositionists and GMA (Mrs. Arroyo’s initials) haters who will not rest until the President is unseated regardless of the consequence on the nation’s future. It is even more deceitful of them to claim and propagandize that Cha-cha is aimed at extending President Arroyo’s term. The President’s term is up to 2010 only. There’s nothing in the agenda of the administration and its allies for Cha-cha that contemplates, harbors or hints at any arrangement for President Arroyo to go beyond 2010,” he added.
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More on the Freedom House assessment from the tribune editorial:
Gloria and her aides may think that, by constantly claiming through their spin that all she is doing — by way of her attempts to control the press, through a takeover of this paper under the guise of emergency rule, banning rallies and arresting her critics for joining protest rallies, also under her Proclamation 1017, and on the pretext of having unearthed documents baring a leftist-rightist alliance to oust her — is to protect democracy and the freedoms gained and to protect the Constitution and uphold the rule of law, they would convince, not just the Filipino people but the world that everything she does is by the constitutional book, they should now realize that nobody is buying that spin — not even the high tribunal.
Whether it is the local media and political critics, or the New York Times, or the Heritage Foundation, or the Freedom House, the judgment is that Gloria is into establishing a repressive regime and curtailing all the people’s freedoms, to ensure that her crimes committed against the people are prevented from being exposed.
Although Freedom House spoke of the status of press freedom in the country, what was noted in that report was that the liberty watchdog also pointed to the “sharp” downgrade of the Philippines based on “credible allegations of massive electoral fraud, corruption and the (Arroyo) government’s intimidation of elements in the political opposition.”
All that can’t be missed, obviously, because all her moves in the matter of curtailing the liberties of the people are rooted on her determination to stop the truth of the massive electoral fraud and the equally massive corruption in her government, from surfacing. And she wants to block the truth to ensure her political survival.
Her gag order on all officers and employees of the executive department, Executive Order (EO) 464, was clearly intended to prevent the Senate from digging deeper into the massive poll cheating, which includes the participation of the military and police generals, along with some of her Cabinet secretaries.
Her calibrated preemptive response, or CPR, banning rallies, with her allies in the local governments refusing to grant rally permits to anti-government demonstrators to ensure their violent dispersal by the police and military was intended to prevent a critical mass from forming, which would then lead to a “people power” that would cause her ouster.
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Ninez Cacho-Olivares finds it odd that the Supreme Court justices are exempt from disclosing their Statements of Assets and Liabilities (SAL):
It is only the Supreme Court (SC) justices, among all the government officials and employees, who cannot be forced to disclose their statements of assets and liabilities (SAL).
This is so because, as court spokesman Ismael Khan told reporters, these justices need protection from blackmailers and extortionists, who can use those SALs against them.
Such justification is odd, as it assumes that SC magistrates not only have something to hide, but that they are vulnerable to blackmailers and extortionists, or those who want to pressure the justices into ruling in their favor, if these petitioners or respondents in a case use their SALs as a pressure point.
But why should these justices think that they are vulnerable to such types of blackmailers and extortionists if, in the first place, they acquired whatever money and property they have honestly?
So what if a high court justice has several properties listed on his SAL which was obtained by any individual and threaten to use this knowledge and document against the justice, if, as stated earlier, his assets were legitimately acquired? How can this now be used to pressure that justice into doing what the blackmailer wants?
What they fear, it was also said, the justices could be subjected to harassment. But so are the other elected and appointed officials who are duty bound to submit their SALs and which are, under the laws, open to the public — even if the agencies to which these documents are submitted treat these as confidential matters.
And if such is the reason for justices to keep their SALs private, to be freed from blackmailers, they too, could be their victims. So why should the justices be placed in a special pedestal, and virtually proclaim themselves to be above public scrutiny — in their behavior and in their wealth, or poverty, for really honest judges?
Good point. Read the Whole thing.
UPDATE: Tinamaan rin si Hilario Davide dito:
All the more the SC justices should make that effort to be fully transparent, precisely because it is they who interpret what the law is, wrong or right. There is no other body that is tasked to do that. But what has happened through the years is that the high court justices, especially in the court of Hilario Davide Jr., moved to protect themselves fully, as evidenced in the way they handled the judiciary funds issue, as well as the impeachment complaint lodged by the House of Representatives against Davide, the then Chief Justice.
Instead of facing the music, and abiding by the rule of law and undergoing an impeachment trial, Davide and his justices moved to protect themselves to evade impeachment, and issued a ruling whose result was far-ranging, as the high court virtually made impeachment a useless tool against constitutional and impeachable officers by Congress, as they can easily evade an impeachment rap by simply having a bogus impeachment complaint filed yearly, knowing that this will go nowhere — as Gloria Arroyo did last year, apart from buying off the congressmen, to ensure the killing of the complaint.
It was also then that Davide refused to even honor the invitation sent him by the House committee for clarification on the judiciary development funds which was clearly being misused, as there was clear evidence of the funds going into projects not covered under the law on the funds, such as the posh vacation homes for retired high court justices.
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