GMA Faces Impeachment Over ID System, Youth Group Says

Four years ago, the Supreme Court declared the proposed national ID system unconstitutional. The ruling, however, did not put to rest moves by the Estrada administration and now, by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to institute the system. The new move has precipitated a wave of protests, notably from a youth group who sees the revival unconstitutional and hence impeachable.

BY GERRY ALBERT-CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

A national network of peasant advocates said over the weekend President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is courting possible impeachment if she revives the move to implement a national ID system. This surfaced as the militant peasant group, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, reminded the President that the plan had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Ashley Dy said his group, the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth (Nnara Youth) which he chairs, would campaign for Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo’s impeachment is she will force the issue on the controversial ID system through an executive order.

"Let President Arroyo go with her crazy agenda, but for sure protests will spread all over the country and the promise of impeachment will be slapped straight to her face," Dy said.

The youth leader also warned local officials on the implications of implementing the obligatory ID system. "It would lead to scores of human rights violations and cases of state repression,” he said. “We ask the local government units to think a million times before acceding to Palace's transmission lines on the obligatory national identification system," Dy said.

In a related statement, Danilo Ramos, KMP secretary general, reminded the President that in 1996 the Supreme Court stopped the President Fidel Ramos from enforcing the ID system through Administrative Order No.308 (Adoption of a National Computerized Identification Reference System).

Two years later, the high tribunal declared the unconstitutionality and grave threats of AO 308 to the Filipino people's right to privacy. The SC said the ID system proposed by Ramos was a direct invasion of privacy and would deprive citizens of their rights and privileges because they would be forced to secure a government ID first in order to deal with the government.

" The national ID system is one big curse to the Filipino people,” Ramos said. “It is inviting a deluge of political disasters and concerted attack on the rights of every citizen." He called for a nationwide mobilization to defy the Palace proposal.

The KMP leader also called on human rights and civil liberties organizations to challenge the executive order being drafted by the presidential office before the high court as well as in the streets and theater of public opinion.

Ramos said the “shotgun ID system must be laid to its final rest.”

Frankenstein measure

Meanwhile, Bayan secretary general Teddy Casiño said the proposed national ID system including Palace's calls for emergency powers and the passage of the Anti-Terrorism act in Congress were symptoms of a government marred by corruption scandals, anti-people and pro-imperialist policies and unimpeded military and police collusion with criminal syndicates and unrelenting human rights violations against the people.

"The obligatory national ID measure, along with other Frankenstein schemes proposed by President Arroyo and her militarist cohorts have proven costly not just to the national coffers since it infuses billions in precious funds to the unreformed and abusive military and police," Casiño said.

Under the national ID system, the Bayan leader said, every Filipino must prove his innocence by showing an ID card. He said activists and protesters as well must prove there are not " terrorists" or else they will be prevented "preemptively" from expressing legitimate political action.

"It is this regime which is guilty of terrorism on numerous accounts," he added.

The national ID system – a move which has been opposed by human rights advocates and civil liberties groups since the Aquino administration – was revived amid a spate of bombings that has wracked Metro Manila and Mindanao. The bombings have been blamed on “terrorists” out to destabilize the country and ruin the economy.

But militant groups accused the military arm of the government of being behind the bombings, saying hawks in the Macapagal-Arroyo are fomenting tension to justify a state of emergency and launch a crackdown against legitimate protesters.

Requirement

Last week, National Security Adviser Roilo J. Golez said the President would soon sign an executive order requiring all people to secure a national ID first before they could engage in any official transaction with the government and private sectors.

In a Palace press briefing, Arroyo's security adviser explained that the obligatory character of the proposed national ID

would allow Palace to implement the system without legal obstacles from the Supreme Court and skip congressional debates on the issue.

He said the EO would empower Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo to direct local government units to pass ordinances requiring a similar ID for transacting with local government agencies.

But the militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya called on the Filipino people to boycott the obligatory national ID system proposed by Malacañang. The group said the Palace has resorted to political blackmail to clinch the "extremely dangerous" national ID system.

The group, through national chair Fernando Hicap, assailed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and National Security Adviser Roilo J. Golez for advancing a proposal with cruel intentions.

"We call on the Filipino people to boycott this evil and sinister plan of the Arroyo-Golez tandem,” Hicap said. “We must resist this political attack on our civil liberties as people since the government is planning to commit crimes against our persons and rights as citizens through this dreadful ID system." Bulatlat.com

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