Interfaith rally gathers big anti-GMA crowd
People power is alive in this highland city as shown in mass actions launched here calling for the immediate resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, belying administration claims that there is widespread people-power fatigue. Nationally coordinated mass actions launched last Feb. 25 and Feb. 29 have proven the opposite of so-called people-power fatigue.
BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 5, March 2-8, 2008
BAGUIO CITY (246 kms north of Manila) – People power is alive in this highland city as shown in mass actions launched here calling for the immediate resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, belying administration claims that there is widespread people-power fatigue.
Nationally coordinated mass actions launched last Feb. 25 and Feb. 29 have proven the opposite of so-called people-power fatigue.
Amid rain, various groups in this city covered with tents the Igorot Park where they gathered Feb. 29 to join the interfaith gathering for truth and accountability. The activity was in coordination with another interfaith rally which simultaneously gathered a mammoth crowd in Makati City.
Various groups representing the church, youth and students, professionals, urban poor and workers, among others, gathered on two occasions this week here where they aired their call for truth on the National Broadband Network (NBN)-ZTE deal, and for GMA to step down, as the protest actions reverberated with protest songs, candle-lighting and a torch parade.
Honest governance
Nelson Salvador, spokesperson of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals said they joined the gathering as they aspire for an honest society.
“Be honest even if others are not, cannot, and will not,” he said.
Salvador bewailed that corrupt officials have tended to cling to power while honest ones have unfortunately been removed from their positions or suspended. He cited the case of anti-graft crusader Braulio D. Yaranon, Baguio City’s former mayor, who was suspended for a year due to his expose of local graft and corruption in the city.
Yaranon also talked during the gathering, explaining how power tempts officials, leading them to turn their back on their responsibility to the people they are sworn to serve.
Fr. Percy Bacani of the Diocese of Social Action reiterated the condemnation of the culture of corruption pervading the present administration from top to bottom.
“We need to fight corruption particularly in the local government units,” Bacani pointed out.
In a statement distributed in the gathering, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) said, “The spectacle of administration allies ganging up on Lozada show how they would do everything to preserve their interest and that of the one seating in Malacañang. They were incoherent with their lies, weaving a string of allegations, which only further exposed a larger network of conspiracy.”
Evelyn Miranda of the Am-among di Ifontok (Gathering of the Ibontocs) said that truth is already unfolding as to the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. “Ammo tay amin nu anya ti agpayso” (We all know the truth) she said.
Junie Simeon of the Confederation for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage)-Cordillera said their group supports the gathering, adding that government employees are affected with the new policies of the government including the privatization of their agencies directly bringing services to the people.
The Youth for Accountability and Truth Now (Youth Act Now), an alliance of youth organizations and individuals, expressed its support to businessman Jun Lozada who exposed the anomalous deal.
Anjo Cerdeña, spokesperson of the local Youth Act Now chapter reiterated their call for GMA’s resignation as she turned her back to the government’s responsibility on education and other social services.
From truth to resignation
While the call for truth and accountability was the initial call of the gathering, the gravity of the graft and corruption and violation of basic rights allegedly committed by this administration led the more militant to raise the call for GMA to resign.
Manny Loste of Bayan Muna (People First)-Cordillera, a former instructor at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), talked of the human rights the violations being attributed to GMA particularly the over 900 extra-judicial killings and more than 240 enforced disappearances, based on the latest count by Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights).
“Enough is enough. GMA must step down from the presidency at the earliest period,” urged Chie Galvez, secretary-general of the Tongtongan ti Umili (TTU or People’s Forum).
“We cannot allow apathy to triumph alongside with the evils of bureaucracy. We have to continue to fight these bureaucratic evils towards the ouster of the corrupt and fascist GMA regime. Let us live out what history taught us, that People power is the highest form of people’s participation in governance,” Tongtongan said in its statement.
Meanwhile on Monday, various groups attended the mass at the Baguio Cathedral here. A candle- lighting and a torch parade ensued. They also called for truth about the NBN-ZTE deal.
Baguio-Benguet Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon, in his homily, called for truth on the overpriced U$329 million NBN-ZTE deal.
“This mass is an expression of the CBCP’s (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) call for communal action,” Cenzon reiterated during a mass which gathered a crowd much wider that the local Catholic population.
Sr. Lulu Dulay, Directress of the St. Louis Center here, reiterated the position of the Catholic Educators Association in the Philippines (CEAP) which “does not allow dishonesty and corruption in the government to rule our life.”
Discussing the anomaly-tainted NBN-ZTE deal, Dulay said CEAP would link with other groups to seek truth and justice.
Cerdeña of Youth Act Now and College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), pointed out the role of the youth in the removal of two corrupt presidents through people power – Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.
Yaranon, who was also in the mass officiated by Cenzon, said that through their strength people could remove a corrupt president who has no moral authority to lead the country.
He exposed local corrupt practices by politicians during his 2004-2006 in office but he was suspended by Malacañang for a year and never took his seat up to the 2007 elections, when he ran for re-election but lost by a slim margin.
Yaranon pointed out that people power is incorporated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution “which institutionalizes people’s gathering and discussion of their issues.”
“It protects their rights to peaceably assemble including the removal of their leader through their sovereign power,” he said. Northern Dispatch / (Bulatlat.com)
