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Read more feedback
On
dismembering the republic
I was
wondering why these governors want to protect and secure Arroyo's tenure in
Malacanang?
Also, why
have these governors not responded to the complaints of the protestors regarding
poverty and corruption? Just like the Arroyo administration, they have been
avoiding the issues being presented by the public. And why isn't the media
questioning this?
Also, do
you have any reports describing the revenues that the governors claim they will
withhold if Arroyo is ousted?
Pauline Santos
Paulinecfny@aol.com
21 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
American
vet
This may
be completely out of line with your publication... I served in the U S Navy in
Guiana in 1945-1946 and have a "group" picture that was taken alongside the
Immaculate Conception church in 1945. Could it be mailed to you for publication?
Maybe some of the "younger" ones shown can remember that far back.
Jerry Higgins
jphigg@earthlink.net
21 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Silent
majority
I’m sure
this would not be posted on Bulatlat due to the seemingly one-sided material
that you guys print. Not all Filipinos are for the resignation or forced ouster
of GMA. She should be tried, yes and prosecuted if guilty. Calling a Comelec
official in the height of an election really constitutes bad taste and a lapse
in judgment (as GMA would say) of all the election candidates that would have
called Commissioner Garcillano asking for help and who would readily deny it
with the most absurd alibis it was GMA who chose to admit it.
GMA is and
will be the sacrificial lamb for our country to move on no doubt about that, but
I personally won’t accept a change of government brought about by mob rule. It
has been years since the original People’s Power and that first one was really
called for but by god after all this years we still haven’t changed, we still
haven’t put to good use the sacrifices and the gains that past governments after
the Marcos era has laid for us.
After all
things will be said and done there is no doubt that we are in verge of a new era
in Philippine politics with the old dogs of a bygone era being slowly replaced
by young modern thinkers full of idealism and hope, old practices should give
way to new governance, a governance which upholds the rule of law. Mind you the
silent majority wants legal action but alas they remain silent and the minority
hogs all the limelight.
STEVE ALBURO
MAKATI,
PHILIPPINES
Salburo
spbalburo@nttwem.com.ph
19 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
People
power is constitutional
Those protesting are not only
exercising a RIGHT, they are more importantly exercising THE ELECTORAL POWER.
They are unsheathing the
PREROGATIVE of FINAL RECOURSE, to John Locke "antecedent and paramount,"
Sovereign PEOPLE forever retain, refuse to relinquish to Government the Governed
CONSENT to create, reserve solely to exercise...THE ELECTORAL POWER...to
dissolve Government violating the TRUST reposed, revoke delegated Powers
usurped, concentrated, abused, "provide new Guards."
Our idea of a "comprehensive
and lasting social reforms" for a lawyer's group such as CODAL to advocate are:
1. Abolition of Political
Dynasty (and all those who have held ELECTIVE public office are permanently
barred from public service);
2. Abolition of Usury (or
Economic Slavery or Bombai which the Church remains silent about); and
3. Restudy the POLITICAL STATUS
of TERRITORIAL FILIPINOS engendered by American BIRTHPLACE PREJUDICE
(Territorial Filipinos are
those born during the American Territorial Period). This way, the Overseas
Filipino DIASPORA can be transformed into an EXPAT EXUDOS.
Domingo T. Arong
Fermin T. Rotea
No cell phone, land (Cebu)
262-6883
domingoarong@yahoo.com
16 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Replacing
Gloria
To lead our country from
poverty and corruption so we want the younger version to LEAD our country incase
the vice president can't govern. We want ESCUDERO, MAR ROXAS , LACSON and
ZUBIRI, NONOY AQUINO any of them will be better. We are sick and tired of BROKEN
promises already. We want a TOTAL CHANGE for our country. We also want the
younger MILITARY men to replace the old ones so that they can have the chance to
be our soldiers of TRUTH and HONEST Y.
WE mga Pinoy dito sa
Japan
want GMA to RESIGN now for the good of our country.
MABUHAY ang mga totoong PINOY
na ipinaglalaban ang KALAYAAN natin kagaya ng pinaglaban ni NINOY AQUINO sa atin
BANSA. TAMA na ... SOBRA na ... MAG-KAISA po tayo to FIND the TRUTH para matapos
na po ang paghihirap ng ating mga KABABAYAN. MABUHAY ang mga STUDENTS natin
dahil pinaglalaban nila ang KARAPATAN natin sa KOTOTOHANAN. HINDI po natutulog
ang DIYOS ... at iyan ay ALAM ni GMA.
Pinoy Group of
Japan
bethbaba1990@yahoo.co.jp
15 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Photo of
the Week
Tungkol po
sa "Photo of the Week' section ng Bulaltlat. Maganda po at nakikita ng ating
mga kababayan ang ibat-ibang pang-araw araw na pamumuhay sa ibat ibang bahagi ng
Pilipinas. SALAMAT at MORE POWER SA BULATLAT.
SAM
samchua_99@yahoo.com
13 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Maraming
salamat
Maraming
maraming salamat, lubos kong ikinagagalak na ako'y maging bahagi ng inyong
organisasyon.nawa'y balang araw ako'y maging isang haligi ng ilaw at panitik.
kasihan nawa kayo ng diyos...
"richard moral"
bukangliwayway@yahoo.com
8 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Indepth
news
Salamat ho so trabaho niyo in
bringin out the more in depth news from the Philippines. Maraming salamat ho at
saka patuloy ang paglabas ng relevant news!
Chico Taguba
The Netherlands
chicotaguba@gmail.com
3 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
On The
Final Crisis of the Arroyo Government
Is it
possible that the ouster of Arroyo from the presidency would also
include nullifying the legitimacy of her stint as president after she usurped
power through the so-called EDSA 2?
Rosalinda Olsen
Norway
rvolsen@online.no
Jul 3, 2005
♦♦♦
Very
interesting
Your
article is very interesting. It is already a fact known to many who are serious
in their education. It'd be nice if the government would do something about this
instead of busying themselves with senseless ideas of making themselves richer.
Continue to work for the awakening of the people! God bless!
"Stephanie Ramiro"
srramiro@hotmail.com
2 Jul 2005
♦♦♦
Truth and
justice
Today was the first time I read
Bulatlat online, thanks to a friend who gave me the URL.
Dabet Castañeda's article "The
Oldest and the Youngest in the Day of Protest," brought tears in my eyes and in
my heart as I read of my countrymen's pursuit of truth and justice.
I take the liberty of attaching
a flash movie I made, in the hope that you can make use of it.
Rosalinda N. Olsen
rvolsen@online.no
Jun 29, 2005
♦♦♦
Crediting
Bulatlat and Charles Raiñer C. Marquez
Greetings
from FUDGE! We are a pop culture magazine currently on our 10th issue,
distributed at local newsstands in Metro Manila as well as Cebu and Davao.
We would like to notify your company of our use of a quote from Charles Raiñer
Marquez's article "Medical Schools Rake in Profits –but Health System is in
Crisis." The quote will be utilized in our feature on the rush of Pinoy medical
practitioners to become nurses abroad.
We would like to assure you and the author that Mr. Marquez will be cited as the
writer of the piece -and that the article will be credited to
Bulatlat.com.
Anna Gan
Managing Editor
FUDGE Magazine
fudgemagazine@gmail.com
Jun 28, 2005
♦♦♦
The Saga of Macapal Arroyo
Excerpts from the
internet...
Iloilo
in 1929, the king of jueteng was a Chinese named Luis Sane, widely known as
Sualoy. He operated with impunity; his establishments were safe from raids;
secured, it was said, by generous bribe money to
politicians and the local police.
In September 1929, Ening [Lopez] and El Tiempo began a crusade against jueteng
in Iloilo and the corruption it created in local
government. The winning number each day was printed in a box in boldface on page
one. Ening came out with one expose after another, alleging that top politicians
such as Iloilo Governor Mariano Arroyo,
Iloilo City police
chief Marcelo Buenaflor and his brother Congressman
Tomas Buenaflor, had been bribed by Sualoy to turn a blind eye on jueteng.
Ening did not choose lightweight opponents. Mariano Arroyo was the most powerful
man in the province. He was the brother of the late Jose Arroyo, a Nacionalista
senator and good friend of Quezon. As the public's outrage over the corruption
began to mount, Arroyo issued a statement that jueteng did not exist in Iloilo.
That it did and that local officials benefited from it were matters of public
knowledge in the
city. The question was not what needed to be done, but who had the courage to do
it. As it turned out, Ening Lopez did.
In March 1930, due to the pressure created by El Tiempo, Sualoy's headquarters
was finally raided; not by the do-nothing local police, but the Philippine
Constabulary. Sualoy was arrested, found guilty
and jailed. He was eventually deported and died in China. With Sualoy out, the
conflict had narrowed to a match between ElTiempo and the governor. The crusade
had captured the imagination of Iloilo and made El Tiempo the city's leading
newspaper. In August 1930, pushed against the wall, Governor Arroyo sued El
Tiempo for libel. Ening struck back by filing administrative charges against the
governor. He also called in his friend and former boss Vicente Francisco to lead
his defense against the libel charge.
As the struggle intensified, some Lopezes sensed in it some unwelcome echoes of
the political tempest that had taken the life of Ening's father (Benito Lopez)
22 years before. El Tiempo's editor, Jose Magalona, was badly beaten by a local
thug who was believed to be in the employ of the governor's men. The older
Lopezes were afraid that as the row grew more heated, Ening might eventually
share his father's fate.
Fortunately, news of the case had reached Manila and attracted the attention of
(American) Governor General Dwight F. Davis. Governor Arroyo and his cohorts
came under minute scrutiny. As a result of the
scandal, the Nacionalistas and Quezon began backing away from Arroyo. When
Arroyo asked Quezon to recommend to Davis that he be acquitted of the
administrative charges filed by Lopez, Quezon refused. Instead, Davis swiftly
dispatched Judge Manuel Moran (later chief justice of the Supreme Court), to
investigate the libel case. Moran established that Arroyo and the police chief
were in fact heavily involved in illegal gambling. They even ran a gambling den
as a means of generating money for the upcoming 1931 elections. Moran concluded
that Ening and El Tiempo had not been guilty of libel.
In Arroyo's trial on the administrative charges, even more damning evidence
against the governor came out. Pio Sian Melliza, a boyhood friend and active
supporte! r of the governor, testified that when he had asked his friend to
finally crack down on jueteng, the governor told him:
Compadre, why are you so determined to get rid of jueteng gambling? Isn't it
clear to you that most of the jueteng runners and sellers are our own political
ward leaders? The elections are nearing, and I am
running for re-election. Not including the money they are giving us for election
expenses, they can hurt us in this election, because there are many of these
jueteng runners in this province.
On October 7, 1930,
Governor General Dwight F. Davis ordered Governor Mariano Arroyo relieved of his
post for corruption. Timoteo Consing, a friend of Ening, was named as his
replacement. Iloilo Mayor Eulogio Garganera and Marcelo Buenaflor were
suspended. The ex-governor staged a protest rally and attempted to make a
political comeback, but his disgrace had been marked and he sank into obscurity.
Now, a postscript to history --
Don Mariano Arroyo, the disgraced governor of Iloilo who was dismissed by the
American governor-general for being a jueteng protector and coddler, had a
brother, Jose Arroyo y Pidal. He is the grandfather of Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo
y Tuason, the so-called First Gentleman, being the husband of the President of
the Republic, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Jose Miguel, whose nickname is Mike, has
a younger brother, Jose Ignacio Arroyo, who is now a congressman of Negros
Occidental.
Misotoma25@aol.com
29 Jun 2005
♦♦♦
Arroyo
regime must come to an end
The belated confession of
Gloria M. Arroyo that hers is the voice on the tapes, telling a commissioner on
elections to deliver the vote margin that she wanted, cannot exculpate her from
the grave crime of massive electoral fraud. This is not a minor lapse in
judgment but a serious crime that must be thoroughly investigated and tried.
Arroyo has made her confession
because of the mounting popular demand for her to break her silence and the
failure of her armed agents to locate the original tapes in order to destroy
them.
The confession is done in bad
faith. The apology is insincere and worthless because it is not accompanied by
her resignation. It is intended to let the electoral cheat and her cohorts keep
their ill-gotten power and all the opportunities for further bureaucratic
corruption at the expense of the Filipino people.
After the confession of Gloria
M. Arroyo, in the face of the undeniable truth and under the pressure of public
opinion and mass unrest, there is greater and more compelling reason for the
Filipino people to exercise their sovereign power to oust her and her cohorts
from power or compel them to resign through the mass movement.
The House of Representatives is
dominated by Arroyo loyalists headed by Speaker Jose de Venecia. It is therefore
futile to undertake impeachment proceedings against her. The only way to remove
her from power and make her answerable for her crimes is to undertake a mass
movement with cumulative strength, scope and intensity.
Arroyo has committed too many
grave crimes aside from massive electoral fraud. Following the orders of the US
as her imperialist master, she has intensified the exploitation and oppression
of the Filipino people. The broad masses of the people are revolted by their
economic suffering and the cruelty of state terrorism under the Arroyo regime.
It is fine if the broad united
front and the broad mass movement can remove the Arroyo ruling clique from
power. They have a good chance of ousting the ruling clique within the second
half of this year, if certain groups and movements of military and police forces
keep their word to uphold civilian supremacy, respect the people's rights and
withdraw support from the hated regime.
After the resignation or ouster
of the Arroyo-de Castro tandem, a people's democratic council can act as a
transition government to conduct snap elections of executive officials as well
as delegates to a constitutional convention that is not in the clutches of
Arroyo and Speaker De Venecia.
But some powerful forces wish
to condone all the accumulated and continuing crimes of the Arroyo ruling clique
because of the irrational fear that the entire ruling system might be undermined
by the mass movement if once more this succeeds in removing a ruling clique from
power before the next presidential elections.
For any length of time that it
can prolong its rule, the rotten Arroyo reactionary clique can only deepen and
aggravate the rottenness of the entire ruling system of big compradors and
landlords servile to US imperialism. It can only drive the people to overthrow
not only itself but the entire ruling system.
If the regime is able to stay
in power through the use of brute force and because certain forces condone and
support it, the Filipino people are more than ever justified in waging the armed
revolution for national liberation and democracy against
US
imperialism and the local exploiting classes.
leninkarl@yahoo.com
28 Jun 2005
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