Governance by Arrogance

Next to the Marcos dictatorship, the Arroyo presidency will likely go down in history as the government most vilified apparently due to its use of coercion and intimidation to silence its critics and its presumed enemies.

BY THE CENTER FOR PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT IN GOVERNANCE
Posted by Bulatlat
ANALYSIS
Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 10-16, 2008

Next to the Marcos dictatorship, the Arroyo presidency will likely go down in history as the government most vilified apparently due to its use of coercion and intimidation to silence its critics and its presumed enemies.

Its eighth year in power began in January with a threat against reporters that they will be haled to jail if they covered so-called “destabilizers” and also a bigger threat on cause-oriented organizations against holding rallies to commemorate Edsa Dos.

On Feb. 4, Jose de Venecia, Jr., a staunch Arroyo ally, was unceremoniously unseated as House speaker in a coup plotted by the president’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, her two congressmen-sons, and a business crony. De Venecia’s ouster – where government funds were reportedly used to marshal the yes votes – was described as a family vendetta over De Venecia’s refusal to stop his son, Joey III, from testifying in the Senate about the $330-million telecommunications project scam.

The son’s testimony on the tainted project implicated the president’s husband, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, and some generals in the Arroyo Cabinet. In a privilege speech on the night of the coup, De Venecia lambasted the chief executive for failing to stop assassination attempts by her own men against himself and his son.

De Venecia, 71, who had served as Speaker for five terms beginning 1992 in the 9th Congress, was instrumental in throwing out three impeachment complaints filed against Arroyo in connection with the fraudulent 2004 presidential elections and other constitutional violations. Like a true praetorian guard, he thus saved the president – who was once his vice-presidential mate in 1998 – from certain imprisonment. Now stripped of power and betrayed by Arroyo along with 56 members of his own Lakas-Christian/Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), which he leads as party president, the ousted Speaker has promised to tell all of what he knows about the president and hinted he may likely join the opposition.

Lozada

Then on Feb. 5, Rodolfo Noel Lozada, Jr., a key witness in the controversial national broadband network (NBN) telecommunications deal, went missing after arriving at the international airport from Hong Kong. Quick intercession by his family, senators, and religious groups coupled with media vigilance probably saved his life. In an early dawn news conference Feb. 7, the young Lozada anguished over death threats he said he received from Abalos for refusing to endorse the shady deal on account of the former Comelec chief’s demand for a $130-million commission. He withdrew from the project deliberations as a consultant and has also resigned as president of the state-owned Philippine Forest Corporation. Lozada, who had a brother killed by the police for “mistaken identity,” said he was just a professional doing his job and wanted no part in the scam. The deal has since been scrapped by Arroyo.

Arroyo’s claims of giving the country an unprecedented economic growth have failed to lower the president’s rating as the most corrupt in decades, with a culture of cronyism that equals the Marcos years, and a record of extra-judicial killings that has raised alarm in the international community.

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