This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 24, July 24-30, 2005
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. 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 © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
“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.”