Cordillera Militants say GMA is Worst`Calamity'
Ever To Hit RP

Leaders of militant groups and other concerned citizens met in Baguio City last week to assess the performance of the Arroyo and administration and to advance prospects of real reform.

Baguio City - Leaders of militant groups and other concerned citizens met here last Wednesday for an assembly aimed to assess the performance of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and to advance prospects of real reform.

Tongtongan ti Umili (TtU) and its allied organizations expressed disgust the 18-month old administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a press statement emailed by the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) said. TTU Secretary General Voltaire Tupaz  said that  indeed President Arroyo has not done anything to realize her promises to the Filipino people.

According to Tupaz, the government  policies of Arroyo are the same continuing policies that were rejected by the people during the past regimes of Ramos and the ousted Estrada. And the effect of these is the unending increase of rates in basic social services like electricity, water and housing.

Geraldine Cacho, chairperson of Organisasyon Dagiti Nakurapay  nga Umili ti Syudad (ORNUS), said that Gloria is the worst calamity that hit the nation. “She is the mother of globalization, the grandmother of privatization, liberalization and deregulation that is slowly killing us.”

Fernando Bagyan of Alyansa Dagiti  Pesante iti Taeng ti Kordilyera (APIT-TAKO) on the other hand, said one of the agenda that was presented to President Arroyo was a stop to all foreign funded projects, particularly dams and mines, that threaten the life, land and resources of all indigenous peoples.

“There are only two mining companies that exist in the Cordillera, the Philex Mining and the Lepanto Mining, Bagyan said. “Among these two, the Lepanto is the most destructive because it is an underground mining that threatens the life of Kankanaeys in the area.  It should be recalled that sinking and ground subsidence have been effects of the Lepanto mining operations.  The diversion of irrigation water is another effect that has caused damage to the vegetable farms of the people.”

CPA said that another assessment in the said assembly was that the fight for power among the reactionary forces has been very evident. According to Bayan Muna Cordillera Regional Coordinator Manny Loste, “what we have now is a democracy called elite democracy which means a democracy that caters to  the interests of the ruling class and not of the basic masses. There is a current alignment in the government right now because all of them are preparing for the 2004 election. These politicians are now in a fight on how to divide the diminishing resources of the country or the spoils of imperialism.”

Several cases of human rights violations committed against members of the progressive and militant groups continue to be reported these days.  According to Bishop Allan Sarte, Dinteg-Cordillera Human Rights Organization representative and co- chairman of Promotions of Church Peoples Response, the statement released by the National Alliance for Democracy Foundation Incorporated is a horrific indicator on the continuing human rights violations done by the government.

“The government has branded organizations that criticize the anti-poor and anti-people policies of the government as ‘communists.’ With this tag, legitimate people’s organizations have again become the target of the military. Arroyo is like President Bush of the United States, if you are not with the U.S., you are immediately considered as their foe. If you are anti-Balikatan, you are a friend of the Abu Sayyaf and you are not considered Filipino. If you are one of the members of the progressive groups that uphold the basic rights of the people, you are a communist,” said Sarte.

Tupaz added that the worst thing Arroyo made in her administration is to allow the U.S. military forces to enter the country in the guise of war exercises where in fact their real objective is to implement the U.S. war of aggression and their forward basing strategy in the region. This only shows that Arroyo is a real puppet of the United States, he added.

“President Arroyo feels tall and proud in saying that she has paid all her political debts,“ Tupaz said. “That might be true as far as her ruling factions are concerned or as far as some politicians or bureaucrat capitalists and other ruling class in her government are concerned. The time has come to pay her debts to the basic sectors.” Bulatlat.com

We want to know what you think of this article.