This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 24, July
23-29, 2006
NEWS AT A GLANCE
Majority of Metro Manila youths would rather not listen to President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address, says a survey by youth think-tank Institute for Nationalist Studies.
Joseph Cuevas, INS spokesman, said 64 percent of the 427 respondents do not believe Arroyo will tell the real score in the country. About 92 percent of the respondents also disapproved Charter change and 78 percent were against the all-out war.
He said that 53 percent believes that the P1 billion counter-insurgency fund should instead be used to buttress the ailing education sector. He noted that 29 percent wanted the P1 billion fund to go to social services, debt servicing (7%), health (4%), housing (2%) and only 1 percent believes it should support the military and police.
“The survey results tell that the youth is urging the government to prioritize the sector and their future,” Cuevas said.
Fifty-six percent of the youth also expressed support for the filing of the second impeachment complaint against President Arroyo. The survey, conducted from July 17-19, used cluster sampling method with a margin of error plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Jhong dela Cruz/ Bulatlat
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BACOLOD CITY – The Negros chapter of the church-based organization Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) has hit President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for acting like a dictator.
“Mrs. Arroyo definitely act like a dictator who trampled on civil liberties and ordered the killings of militants who strongly criticized her administration,” Fr. Romeo Tagud, PCPR-Negros secretary-general, said in a press conference here on July 21. “Through her police and military forces, she suppressed the people’s right to rally and imposed schemes like the calibrated preemptive response, Executive Order No. 464 and Proclamation No. 1017 to silence the people’s continuing calls for her ouster.”
He said that despite “ambiguities” in the recent pastoral stand of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), his group still finds hope in Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo’s statement on July 8, during the opening of two-day bishops’ plenary assembly. “One who is apprehensive with personal safety and security will tend to have values that can develop in him the character of a dictator,” Lagdameo had said in his statement.
“Because the president and her cohorts do not fulfill their functions satisfactorily, impeachment is the proper way for a peaceful and legal process of searching for the truth,” Tagud also said.
PCPR-Negros and the Negros Movement for Moral Regeneration and other petitioners will file their consolidated impeachment complaint on July 26 at the House of the Representatives. Karl G. Ombion and Ryan Lachica/Bulatlat
BACOLOD CITY - Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Teddy Casiño said the Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Monday should give the truth, and not just “accomplishment reports” intended to put the administration in a good light.
Casiño, who was here last week to visit Bayan Muna projects in Manapla town said, “Ang gusto kong marinig sana, na ideal na SONA, ay ang harapin nya ang impeachment complaint laban sa kanya” (What I would like to hear, what would make an ideal SONA, is for her to face the impeachment complaint against her).
He also urged the pro-administration legislators to “let the impeachment go its natural way.”
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
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