Church Groups Hit GMA’s ‘Reconciliation’ Move

Plunder and corruption – high crimes that led to the ouster of President Joseph Estada in 2001 – are now being raised against his successor, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), six months before the end of her term. As corruption has amalgamated a new Church alliance and the institutional National Council of Churches in the Philippines to take more action, other militant groups are now mobilizing again for the president’s exit from power.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
With other reports
Bulatlat.com

Leaders of various church groups late last week scored President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s policy of “reconciliation” with powerful personalities which, they said, is mainly designed to boost her presidential candidacy in the May 2004 elections.

The leaders, coalesced under the Christians Against Graft and Corruption, assailed Macapagal-Arroyo for choosing to “reconcile” with President Joseph Estrada who was ousted in 2001 for plunder as well as with Eduardo Cojuangco and the Marcoses, who now face trial for similar charges.

The alliance was referring to reports that the president may yet allow Estrada to leave the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City, where he has been held as he faces trial since mid-2001, for a knee surgery in the United States. Macapagal-Arroyo has also been accused of having a hand in a recent Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court) decision lifting the sequestration orders on 20 percent of San Miguel Corporation shares claimed by Cojuangco in exchange for the latter’s political and financial support.

In a statement issued at its founding in Quezon City on Nov. 21 and signed by convenor IFI Bishop Emer Foja, the new church anti-graft alliance said it will mobilize church constituents to support the campaign against corruption under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration including the president’s associates and cronies who have been accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth.

The alliance includes hundreds of leaders of various Christian faiths, priests, clergy, religious sisters, deaconesses and lay leaders.

Remember EDSA II

In a similar statement on Nov. 21, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) reminded President Macapagal-Arroyo that People Power II, which ousted Estrada in January 2001 and brought her to power was a “response against decadence of the Estrada administration.” Corruption, the NCCP also warned, will bring her down from power.

And bringing Macapagal-Arroyo down from power is what militant organizations – leading players of EDSA II - have vowed to fight for.

On Nov. 20, various militant groups affiliated with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan, New Patriotic Alliance) resumed their campaign to junk Macapagal-Arroyo. Campaign organizers said they will seek the president’s ouster at the maximum and, at the minimum, to ensure her defeat in next year’s elections.

Macapagal-Arroyo a few weeks ago said she would run for the presidency – a reversal of what she told the nation end of last year.

The “Junk GMA” movement, which was launched through a 2,000-strong mobilization in Manila, is anchored on four issues: decadent politics, state terror, corruption, and economy.

Decadent politics

Under the issue of decadent politics, Bayan leaders said, are Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision to allow Estrada to go abroad for medical treatment as well as her presidential bid in 2004.

Plunderwatch, a complainant in the plunder case against the deposed president, said that the Macapagal-Arroyo’s move on Estrada is a political compromise meant to gain the support of Estrada loyalists and his party. It is concerned that from the United States, Estrada would fly to another country to seek asylum and hence escape trial forever.

Doctors, among them Dr. Reginald Pamugas of Code RED (Resign, Erap, Dali) for Good Governance, have insisted that Estrada need not have to seek treatment abroad the same treatment can be had at local hospitals.

The Public Interest Law Center (PILC), whose lawyers are complaint counsels in the plunder case against Estrada, is of the same position. Citing testimony by a Dr. Carillo before the Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court), the PILC said in a statement that “there are about 50 qualified, experienced, and competent Filipino orthopedic surgeons who can perform total knee replacements in over 30 or 35 centers in the country.”

State terror

On the other hand, human rights groups are raising the issue of state terror against President Macapagal-Arroyo on account of a long list of human rights violations under her administration.

A report presented last October by the human rights alliance Karapatan in the 79th Meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in Geneva said that 254 persons have been summarily executed under the Macapagal-Arroyo government. Latest figures from Karapatan show that the number has reached 261.

Meanwhile, during the same period there are 41 documented cases of involuntary disappearance. Nine of the victims of these involuntary disappearances have been found dead.

The same report shows that there are 330 documented political prisoners in the Philippines.

Corruption and economy

The name Macapagal-Arroyo has figured in at least 11 issues of corruption since her assumption of power in 2001, reports also show. One of these, the issue of the coco levy funds, is raised direcly against her.

The coco levy is a tax exacted from coconut farmers from 1971 to 1983. Supposedly intending to improve the coconut industry, the coco levy funds (amounting to a total of P130 billion) were used by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco to purchase shares from San Miguel Corporation (SMC).

Two groups, the People’s Consultative Assembly and the SMC Employees Union, have said that Macapagal-Arroyo had asked for a P20-billion commission from the coco levy funds in exchange for concessions to Cojuangco, whose SMC shares had been declared purchased with public funds by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2001. Despite the SC ruling, Cojuangco was allowed by government to sit as SMC chairman.

In its recent report, the London-based global anti-graft watch, Transparency International, ranked the Philippines No. 92 among 133 countries rated for corruption—just 1.2 points shy from the world’s most corrupt country, Bangladesh.

Well-received

After a rally on Nicanor Reyes St. in Manila, the activists who participated in the launching of the Junk GMA campaign last Nov. 20 went to the communities in Sampaloc and passed around a signature sheet calling for the junking of President Macapagal-Arroyo.

Thousands of signatures were collected in the signature blitz, organizers said. Bulatlat.com

Back to top

We want to know what you think of this article.