GMA Snubs 20,000 Signatures vs Baguio Casino
Poses in a ‘photo-op’ dialogue

Despite a petition signed by more than 20,400 of Metro Baguio residents and hundreds of protesters outside the Presidential Mansion, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just stayed long enough with the leaders of the petitioners for a photo opportunity and left without giving them any indication if she agrees with their position.

BY LYN V. RAMO
Bulatlat.com/NORDIS

Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo poses with protest leaders for photo-op but cancels dialogue. 
(Right) Baguio City vendors oppose Casino

BAGUIO CITY – Despite a petition signed by more than 20,400 of Metro Baguio residents and hundreds of protesters outside the Presidential Mansion, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just stayed long enough with the leaders of the petitioners for a photo opportunity and left without giving them any indication if she agrees with their position.

The president was in Baguio to grace the opening of the National Advertising Congress in Club John Hay and protesters took the opportunity to present to her the petition and statements against the operation of a casino complex in Club John Hay and slot machines in the newly opened Shoe Mart (SM) in this city.

The leaders however said the president almost snubbed their group and had it not been for their insistence and the rally outside the Mansion, they would never have been given time with the president.

Tongtongan ti Umili Secretary General Voltaire Tupaz said that the President’s aides “inhospitably maneuvered” to whisk them away even if they were already at the receiving area of the Mansion.

“We still prevailed and emphatically put across the President the people’s strong opposition to the casino. We are urging her to exercise moral suasion on the Mayor and other city officials favoring the gambling complex,” Tupaz shared.

Anti-casino

In just five days, the Metro Baguio Multi-sectoral Movement Against the Casino gathered more than 20,400 signatures opposing the casino.

In one of the statements handed to the president, Fr. Andres Cosalan, Baguio Cathedral’s parish priest, stressed: “We are aware that casino is legal under Philippine Laws but we also know that given the socio-economic, cultural, and religious context of Baguio City, a casino will adversely affect the moral climate of the city and environs. More than profit and riches are human values and the good of the people.”

Councilor Leandro Yangot further said, “It is moral and social obligation of our city officials to follow the will of their constituents. The greater majority of the people do not favor a casino here. Let us do something before the city loses its distinction as education center of the North and becomes a Gambling Mecca.”

Mansion picket

At least two groups, one against the contested casino joint in Club John Hay and the other pushing for it, waited for the Presidential convoy at the gate of the Mansion here to greet her each with their own placards and streamers.

The anti-casino groups included the Couples for Christ, LIFORSA Pastoral Center, TTU, Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili ti Syudad (ORNUS), Kilusang Mayo Uno- Cordillera, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis party list, Anak ng Bayan youth party, Gabriela-Innabuyog, Progressive Igorots for Social Action, Easter College, and SLU’s White and Blue student publication.

Also present at the picket were Baguio-based lawyers Edgar Avila, Jose Molintas, and Alex Bangsoy. As the picketers and well-wishers stood side by side with their paraphernalia, convenors of the Save the People Metro-Baguio Multi-sectoral Movement Against Casino was scheduled to have a dialogue with the President who instead gave them a photo opportunity.

More than an hour before the presidential convoy came into view behind the rusty gates of the Mansion, the official residence here of Philippine presidents, placards, streamers and banners trickled into what appeared a human mosaic that was never completed until the last minute.

Some came with their winnowing baskets with messages clearly stating the vendors’ demand, “Pwesto para sa sidewalk vendors, hindi casino;” and the urban poor call against demolition and the casino: “No to demolition, no to Casino!”

“Club John Hay Casino…pigilan! Pabahay, Trabaho, Kabuhayan, hindi pasugalan” read the main streamers by the TTU-Cordillera Peoples Alliance.

The presidential car however barely stopped to notice what the messages were in the streamers.

Members of the religious groups, Association of Benguet Ministers, Judgement Morning Ministries and Association of Metro-Baguio Christian Ministers, among others said, “Repent, no to Casino,” “Many families were destroyed by Casino, don’t repeat history,” and “No Justification, no to Casino.”

The group later marched from the Mansion toward Club John Hay in a bid to have their voices heard by at least Club John Hay authorities, if not GMA herself.

The other group, among them Navy base and Camp Allen home-owners, also asked for similar things such as that the lands on which their houses are built - military reservations - be reverted to the state and be awarded to the actual residents.

However, their placards either have an appendage expressing their groups’ support for GMA or the complete reverse of the people’s anti-casino stand.  Their streamers were apparently the reverse of the TTU-CPA demand, explicitly saying that they wanted Baguio to be in the world tourism map. That they love GMA and that they are asking her to run in 2004. “Go, go GMA,” one of their main streamers read.

At the Benguet Day celebration

After lunch, Macapgagal-Arroyo delivered a four-minute speech before spectators in the Benguet Capitol site in time for the Benguet Day exhibits and agro-industrial fair where farmers among the audience were equally dismayed because there was no dialogue that transpired either. 

Incidentally, peasants from Mountain Province, Benguet, Abra and Ilocos Sur were simultaneously attending the General Assembly of the Save the Abra River Movement (STARM) at the Benguet State University in La Trinidad.  STARM marched to the Provincial Capitol where the president addressed the Benguet Farmers’ Congress and waited for the Presidential convoy in the Capitol grounds to show her their streamers which read: “Stop Lepanto Expansion, Save the Abra River Movement! No to the National Minerals Policy, Scrap the Philippine Mining Act of 1995!”

Some even chanted; “Resign! Resign! Resign!” which had the effect of instantly turning the president’s smile into the infamous frown, after realizing that it was a crowd of protesters and not well-wishers.  Bulatlat.com/Northern Dispatch

Photos courtesy of Cordillera People's Alliance/Ace Alegre

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