‘Fire And Power’ for Arroyo’s Removal
Negros’ September 6 Movement supports Transition Council

Calling themselves the “September 6 Movement,” a new broad alliance of academicians, small sugar planters, lawyers, scientists, engineers, artists and other professionals was launched Sept. 16 in this city to represent Negros in the nationwide movement calling for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

By Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat

BACOLOD CITY – Calling themselves the “September 6 Movement,” a new broad alliance of academicians, small sugar planters, lawyers, scientists, engineers, artists and other professionals was launched Sept. 16 in this city to represent Negros in the nationwide movement calling for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Among the convenors of the September 6 Movement, who vowed “to add fire and power to the broad people’s movement for Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation,” are Profs .George Aguilar of the University of St. La Salle and Carlos Legaspi of the University of Negros Occidental; the Alliance of Concerned Teachers – Bacolod; the Social Science Educators Circle; small sugar planters such as Nadie Arceo of UNIFARMS; representatives of the Small Bakers Association of Bacolod; the Black Artists of Asia, Scientists and Engineers Association of Bacolod; lawyer Archie Baribar, who is also former councilor of Bacolod; as well as health professionals, youth groups, and small businessmen. 

The launching guest speaker, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, lauded the movement saying, “It’s a good sign for the GMA resign movement because Mrs. Arroyo’s propagandists keep on harping that the middle class forces are with her. Here it is clear that Mrs. Arroyo is losing one of the most influential and noisy segments in our society.”

Death of constitutional democracy

Another speaker, Prof. Ely Patriarca, said that they got the name of their movement from “the fateful Sept. 6, 2005, the day Mrs. Arroyo stripped and discarded away all her pretensions to democratic principles, even her own elitist democratic beliefs. It is the day Mrs. Arroyo and her henchmen shut the doors of the constitutional and democratic processes to resolving the political and economic grievances of our people. She imposed in its place the rule of tyranny and terror.”

Patriarca also stressed that “the killing of the constitutional process was done Sept. 6, and its burial on Sept. 7.” The group’s battle cry is thus to “fight for the truth and the removal of Mrs. Arroyo because she is the biggest and most serious stumbling block to the realization of truth and justice.”

People Power

Dionisio de la Cruz, a cultural artist and a founder of the movement, said “Now is the time to develop comprehensively a true people power throughout the archipelago, rather than succumb to fear and submission, nor be drawn into the inutile and bankrupt ‘rule of law’ of the rulers.”

“People power is our antidote to the rubber-stamp congress and courts of the corrupt, fake, inutile and ruthless Arroyo administration,” de la Cruz said.

“We will align with the masses of our people, and with them, rely on our own strength, and wage collective and democratic struggles till Mrs. Arroyo is removed from power, and the substantive and meaningful political, economic and social reforms are realized,” he added.

The truth

Prof. George Aguilar, on the other hand, said that their group is no longer interested in the search for truth because, according to them, everybody knows the truth. He said, “Our people want meaningful and lasting peace based on social justice. Our people’s demand is a change in the entire ruling system, not just a mere change in the presidency and leadership, nor in the form of government.”

“The truth,” Aguilar added, “is concealed by the immoral, illegitimate and fake president Mrs. Arroyo for having cheated and stolen the 2004 elections. The truth is also suppressed by Mrs Arroyo’s rule of tyranny, deception and coercion. The truth is further altered by Mrs. Arroyo’s lying to the people about the wholesale implementation of IMF-WB and WTO economic prescriptions which have caused untold miseries to our people, wrecked havoc on our environment, undermined our national sovereignty, and galvanized bureaucratic corruption.“

Urgent reforms needed

Nadie Arceo, president of the UNIFARMS, said that small sugar planters have joined the movement because “the only way to effect meaningful reforms in a big planter-miller-trader- dominated sugar industry is to align with different groups pushing for political and economic reforms in the national and local levels”.

Arceo also said that “the anarchic and monopolistic situation in the sugar industry where only the big ones benefit, and often at the expense of the small sugar planters, is what is happening under the Arroyo administration.”

“The cry among the small sugar producers and even among sugar workers, is also for reforms in the national government. But it should simultaneously start with the removal of bad leadership in the sugar industry and the institution of some reforms,” he added.

Transition Council

Casiño meanwhile told the group that the formation of a transition council is so far the best alternative of the people to Mrs. Arroyo because “it is a true and broad representation of a wide array of political forces fighting for Mrs. Arroyo’s removal, and its political platform carries the sentiments and demands of the people for political, economic and social reforms.”

The idea of a transition council, the Bayan Muna congressman said, came from the lessons the people learned from Edsa 1 and Edsa 2, where after toppling discredited presidents “We did nothing much, and let the forces of reaction grab and share among themselves the power structures and continue the political and economic programs that have been exploiting and oppressing our people.”

“We must define our own alternative and work for it,” Casiño added.

In its declaration of unity, the September 6 Movement supported the formation of a transition council and vowed “to work for the orderly, democratic and peaceful transition of power from Mrs. Arroyo to her successor, with or without constitutional succession, with a transition caretaker body to exist for six months to one year, whose tasks shall be to carry out meaningful electoral, economic and political reforms.”

The group has lined up a series of protest actions, mostly in creative cultural protest forms, to draw the broad and active participation of various middle class professionals. Bulatlat

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