Arroyo Opponents Hit State of Emergency Declaration
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has
received a storm of criticism from her opponents from various political
shades for issuing Feb. 24 – the same day that the 20th
anniversary of the People Power uprising which toppled the Marcos
dictatorship was being commemorated – Proclamation No. 1017 which
declares the entire country as being in a state of national emergency.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has received a storm of criticism from her opponents
from various political shades for issuing Feb. 24 – the same day that
the 20th anniversary of the People Power uprising which
toppled the Marcos dictatorship was being commemorated – Proclamation
No. 1017 which declares the entire country as being in a state of
national emergency.
The declaration of
a state of national emergency came a few hours after Philippine Army
Chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon announced on television that the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP) had thwarted a coup attempt by a group
of officers allegedly led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel
Querubin, both members of the original Young Officers Union (YOU), which
also figured in a coup attempt in 1989 against then President Corazon
Aquino. At the time that Proclamation No. 1017 was issued, rallies
commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first People Power
uprising while at the same time calling for Macapagal-Arroyo’s ouster
were being held, at the EDSA Shrine by the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM),
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), People’s
Movement Against Poverty (PMAP), Union of the Masses for Justice and
Democracy (UMDJ), and the Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at
Gobyerno (KMLG or Movement for a Just Society and Government); and at
Santolan by the Laban ng Masa (The Masses’ Fight).
Citing an alleged
conspiracy among elements of the opposition, the “extreme Left
represented by the CPP-NPA-NDFP (Communist Party of the Philippines-New
People’s Army- National Democratic Front) and the extreme Right,
represented by military adventurists,” Proclamation No. 1017 invokes
Sec. 18, Art. 7 of the Constitution, which enables the President to call
on the armed forces to “prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion
or rebellion,” as well as Sec. 17, Art. 12 which states that: “In times
of national emergency, when the public interest so requires, the State
may, during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by it,
temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately-owned
public utility or business affected with public interest.”
The issuance of
Proclamation No. 1017 paved the way for violent dispersals of the two
rallies and arrests of some of their leaders and participants. A number
of GSM, Bayan, and PMAP members were hurt in the dispersal at the EDSA
Shrine, while among those arrested at the Santolan rally were professors
Randy David and Ronald Llamas and lawyer Argee Guevarra.
“This shows that
the government is afraid of the people who are fighting,” Dinky Soliman,
former social welfare secretary, said to reporters about the dispersals
and arrests. “What crime did Professor David commit? He committed no
crime except walking peacefully to commemorate the anniversary of People
Power, the real meaning of People Power.
Soliman is one of
the so-called Hyatt 10, cabinet officials who resigned in July last year
amid renewed controversy fuelled by allegations that Macapagal-Arroyo
cheated her way to victory in the 2004 election, where she is supposed
to have received a fresh mandate three years after being catapulted to
power through a popular uprising that deposed former President Joseph
Estrada. She was interviewed by reporters at the Ninoy Aquino monument
at Ayala Avenue, Makati City, where protesters coming from the EDSA
Shrine and Santolan had proceeded, braving the scorching afternoon heat,
after being dispersed and joined former President Corazon Aquino at a
wreath-laying ceremony.
Bayan Muna Rep.
Satur Ocampo expressed a view similar to Soliman’s. “I see no reason to
arrest Professor David,” he said in an interview during the Ayala rally.
“He was in the act of negotiating with the police in the hope that they
be allowed to march to wherever their group intended to hold their
program. Arresting negotiators during rallies sends a very bad signal.”
Meanwhile,
Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, a former national security adviser, called
the dispersals and arrests “an example of abuse of power.” He also said
that Proclamation No. 1017 has no basis.
Ocampo also
described the declaration of a state of national emergency as bordering
on a declaration of martial law.
“I think this is a
government that is afraid, hiding behind what they call the law, and is
not even sure of support from its own Armed Forces,” Soliman said of the
Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
If Proclamation No.
1017 intended to quell protest actions, its issuance yesterday appeared
to achieve the opposite, as shown by the fact that the Ayala rally
pushed through as planned and the crowd kept growing until early
evening. When the crowd at Ayala was about to disperse peacefully,
scores of policemen wielding truncheons chased them towards EDSA to the
indignation of the bystanders, who booed the police.
When news of the
declaration of a state of national emergency started to leak near
noontime, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, who was supposed to say
mass at the EDSA Shrine as part of the program there, said the
proclamation could end up enraging the people instead of quelling
dissension.
“I am alarmed for
those in power,” Iñiguez, who also chairs the Commission on Ecumenical
Affairs of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP),
told reporters at the EDSA Shrine when asked whether the declaration
alarmed him. “If they cannot defend the legitimacy (of this
declaration), that will be very bad for them. They will be in a state of
emergency.” Bulatlat
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