Ex-U.S.
Attorney-General Supports GMA Ouster Call
Former U.S. Attorney General and
world-renown human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark registered his support for
the call for the ouster of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
according to the U.S. chapter of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or
New Patriotic Alliance)-USA and the New York Committee for Human Rights in
the Philippines (NYCHRP).
BY BULATLAT
Former U.S. Attorney
General and world-renown human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark has registered
his support for the call for the ouster of Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, according to the U.S. chapter of the Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-USA and the New York Committee
for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP).
“It seems awfully
important to me, from a distance, that the people of the Philippines face
up to the failure of integrity of their own government,” Clark said in a
taped interview with Bayan-USA regional coordinator Berna Ellorin last
week. “If you don’t have integrity in your own government, particularly in
the highest position, the President, you can’t expect the government to
protect or serve the people. We have a situation there which clearly calls
for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down.”
Protest actions
calling for Arroyo’s ouster have been occurring almost daily in Manila and
the provinces. Similar protests are also taking place in Canada,
Hong Kong,
Australia and other countries.
While scandals of
illegal gambling and electoral fraud in 2004 have swiftly placed her under
public scrutiny, groups under Bayan have been condemning her
administration for calling for a massive influx of U.S. troops to the
Philippines, sanctioning the political killings of activists and
high-profile opposition leaders, and high corruption that is blamed for
bringing the nation into a fiscal crisis.
Kawal Ulanday, chair
of Bayan-USA, said “It is not just the Filipino people witnessing their
own suffering under the GMA regime. International friends as far as the
United States, such as Ramsey Clark, can no longer remain silent and are
speaking out on what is clearly an anti-people administration that has
failed Filipinos.”
A leading figure in
the U.S. anti-war and anti-occupation movement, Clark was a staunch U.S.
ally to the anti-dictatorship struggle under Martial Law, and continued
leading investigative missions to the Philippines on human rights
violations through the Ramos administration.
“In the darkest periods of our nation’s history, Ramsey shed light on the
important role of international solidarity in supporting and strengthening
the Filipino people’s movement against tyranny and fascism,” Ulanday said.
“He was and remains an ardent anti-US interventionist, and as such has
dedicated a good amount of time on raising public the dark realities and
dangers of US militarization in the Philippines.”
Clark is expected to
attend the coming International Solidarity Mission to the Philippines in
August, where he will serve as a the main judge for a People’s Tribunal
established to deliberate on the findings of five fact-finding missions in
the areas reported to have the highest record of human rights violations
in the Philippines under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime. Bulatlat
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