This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 21, July 3-9, 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS
GMA Apology Evades Big
Issues
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s June 27 televised admission that it was her
voice that is in the controversial taped conversations widely believed to be
dealing with rigging the 2004 presidential election has, as the oft-repeated
phrase goes, raised more questions than answers. As such, it has aggravated
rather than solved the present presidential crisis. BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
(GMA) June 27 televised admission that it was her voice that is in the
controversial taped conversations widely believed to be dealing with rigging the
2004 presidential election has, as the oft-repeated phrase goes, raised more
questions than answers. As such, it has aggravated rather than solved the
present presidential crisis. Press Secretary Ignacio
Bunye had released June 6 two CDs containing audio files of what he said was a
taped conversation between the President and a political leader of the
administration Lakas-CMD in Mindanao, southern Philippines. One of them, Bunye
said, was a version purportedly altered by the opposition to make it appear that
Macapagal-Arroyo had cheated in the 2004 presidential election. Both “original” and
“tampered” have portions in which a woman – said to be Macapagal-Arroyo – was
asking a man (“Gary” in the “original” version, “Garci” in what Bunye called the
tampered version) if she would still win by a million votes. The “Garci” in what
Bunye said was the tampered version of the tape is widely believed to be
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Macapagal-Arroyo won by a
million votes over her closest rival, Fernando Poe, Jr. Days later, lawyer Alan
Paguia, counsel for deposed President Joseph Estrada, came out with a longer
tape, and after a few days he would be followed by National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) agent Samuel Ong who claimed to possess the “mother of all
tapes.” For several weeks Macapagal-Arroyo
kept mum on the issue, leading even some of her allies like Vice President Noli
de Castro to urge her to break her silence. Public pressure mounted and mounted
to the point where she had to make her June 27 television appearance, admit that
the female voice on record was hers, and asked the Filipino people to forgive
her. Days after the admission,
pressure on her is not easing: if any, it has continued to mount as shown by the
steady swelling of rallies calling for her ouster. Opposition Sen. Panfilo
Lacson, who was one of Macapagal-Arroyo’s opponents in the 2004 election,
described the apology as intending to confuse the people. Bayan Muna (People
First) Rep. Teddy Casiño would chide Macapagal-Arroyo in a June 28 forum at the
University of the Philippines (UP) in Manila for making an apology without
saying what it was she was apologizing for. Even as they come from
different ends, Lacson and Casiño both hit it on the head. There are just too
many questions that the admission and apology leave unanswered, which explains
the increasingly difficult situation Macapagal-Arroyo finds herself in even
after her June 27 appearance. A million votes “I
was anxious to protect my votes and during that time had conversations with many
people, including a Comelec official,” Macapagal-Arroyo said. “My intent was not
to influence the outcome of the election, and it did not.” With this
line of argument, Macapagal-Arroyo fails to explain whether all the resources at
her disposal as an incumbent President running for a fresh term were not enough
for her to build and maintain a strong electoral machinery that could protect
her votes without her having to call an election official several times, whether
or not it was Garcillano – an act that violates of election laws according to
several legal experts. Macapagal-Arroyo
also conveniently evaded the most crucial issue concerning the tape, the one
that reinforces public suspicion that there was massive fraud in the 2004
election and she was among its beneficiaries. In both “original” and “tampered”
versions of the tape, there is a part where Macapagal-Arroyo is heard asking a
man whether she will still win by a million votes. The President
has a lot of explaining to do on why she knew she was going to win by a million
votes. Without a credible explanation, Macapagal-Arroyo will not be able to stop
the public from suspecting that she knew she was going to win by a million votes
because there was a script that said so. Not even the most accurate surveys have
been able to predict election outcomes as accurately. And what did
she mean when she said – even in the “original” tape – that her lead “cannot be
less than 1 million”? With this sticking out, it is very difficult for her to
prove that she did not intend to influence the outcome of the election. “And as you
remember,” she hastened to tell the viewers, “the outcome had been predicted by
every major public opinion poll, and adjudged free, fair and decisive by
international election observers, and our own Namfrel (National Movement for
Free Elections).” She is not
helped by the fact that the 2004 presidential election, which international
observers sent by the U.S. government and indeed even the Namfrel adjudged as
free, fair and decisive continues to be haunted by the specter of election
documents containing glaring discrepancies in the figures – many of these with
signs of tampering. The
credibility of the entire electoral exercise of 2004 is at the crux of the
matter surrounding the taped conversations. The question
of Macapagal-Arroyo’s legitimacy had never been resolved, and the fact that her
proclamation was “done in the dead of night,” as a June 24 statement by the
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) put it, only made
things worse for her. End of the
line Instead of
appeasing the people, Macapagal-Arroyo’s apology only led to an increase in the
tempo of public outrage. Instead of salvaging whatever may be said to remain of
her much-vaunted “Strong Republic,” Macapagal-Arroyo’s apology has only brought
her closer to the edge. The danger
signs are already there. Anti-GMA alliances are sprouting everywhere, and it is
no longer just the Left and the Fernando Poe, Jr. forces that are hitting her.
Support for
her from the country’s particularly influential sectors like the Church,
academe, and the business community – once seemingly solid – is fast eroding,
and as of last July 1, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales has been reported to
have issued a statement calling on the President to face her accountability. Her
political allies appear to be flying away: Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez has
resigned from the ruling coalition and called for her resignation, while
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has quit his post. In attempting
to pull herself away from the end of the line, Macapagal-Arroyo has only pushed
herself closer to it. Bulatlat
© 2004 Bulatlat
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