In the Front Line
Historic rally to oust Macapagal-Arroyo takes off
The tortuous step toward
replacing a discredited president began on June 24 when about 20,000
people held a rally at Welcome Rotunda, the entry point to Manila. For
many others however the challenge goes beyond presidential succession,
i.e., to build a new government that will truly represent the democratic
interests of the people.
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
|
FAKE: Protester (right)
paints slogan calling Macapagal-Arroyo (extreme right) a fake president
PHOTOS BY AUBREY MAKILAN
(right) / AP
(extreme right) |
 |
 |
The tortuous step
toward replacing a discredited president began on June 24 when about
20,000 people held a rally at Welcome Rotunda, the entry point to Manila.
For many others however the challenge goes beyond presidential succession,
i.e., to build a new government that will truly represent the democratic
interests of the people.
The rally marked the
National Day of Protest which also saw similar protest rallies in Hong
Kong, the
United States,
Canada and other countries.
Coinciding with the
400th founding anniversary of
Manila
and the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the rally was held as Congress
began its inquiry into charges hurled that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
had cheated in the May 2004 presidential race and that she received
financial support from a jueteng lord when she ran for vice
president in 1998. (Jueteng is an age-old illegal numbers game.)
Among other reasons,
the charges have sent her popularity rating plunging to the lowest among
the presidents since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.
The rallyers were led
by the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic
Alliance) and its allied organizations, groups belonging to the
newly-formed United Opposition, pro-Estrada forces, PDP-Laban-Makati as
well as a number of Moro organizations. Rebuffed by the Catholic hierarchy
in holding a mass inside the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City, the
rallyers instead assembled outside the church gates at 1 p.m. along Quezon
Avenue where a brief cultural program and an ecumenical prayer were held.
The rally-march
stopped all traffic headed for Quiapo,
Manila’s
central district and chokepoint. Weather appeared to have cooperated as
heavy rains fell only at the end of the four-hour demonstration. Many of
the participants were also veterans of the two people’s uprisings in 1986
and 2001 that toppled two presidents.
Expose the truth
Priests led by Fr.
Joe Dizon and nuns who officiated the prayer atop a truck festooned with a
huge streamer, “Ilantad ang katotohanan, kamtin ang katarungan”
(expose the truth, obtain justice) asked God to help ferret out the truth
in the wiretapping scandal. They also called for the President to step
down immediately.
The members of the
clergy together with mass leaders let fly white and red balloons
symbolizing “truth” and a “new beginning” before rallyers prepared to
march for Liwasang (plaza) Bonifacio in Manila.
Carrying flags,
streamers that screamed “Oust Gloria” and themselves carrying “Hello,
Garci, goodbye Gloria” placards and stickers, the protesters began
marching toward the rally site in Manila – some 3 kms away - only to be
stopped, as anticipated, at the approach to Welcome Rotunda by a phalanx
of some 1,000 riot policemen, SWAT men armed with high-powered rifles and
firetrucks. The police included contingents from Central Luzon, said to be
the bailiwick of Macapagal-Arroyo. The police commander from the Central
Police District said they received their orders from Malacañang.
Several hundreds more
policemen and soldiers were strategically posted along España all the way
to the Don Chino Roces Bridge at the dead end of which lie the gates of
the Malacañang presidential palace. The palace itself was on red alert
with armored personnel carriers (APCs) and tanks on standby inside.
Vice mayor
Some protesters were
itching to push forward but Bayan and Bayan Muna organizers decided to
hold the main rally at that point. In a brief speech later, Manila’s
grey-haired vice mayor Danny Lacuna who joined the rally let loose his
anger at the police for blocking the marchers’ way to his own jurisdiction
and even preventing him from walking toward his own residence which is
just a few meters away. This, he boomed, was a violation of the right to
peaceful assembly and free movement.
Speaker after speaker
took turns calling Macapagal-Arroyo an “illegitimate president” for
cheating in the last elections even as she continued to pursue policies
inimical to the people’s interests. Party-list Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy
Casiño said the taped conversation between the President and Election
Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano proves beyond doubt that Macapagal-Arroyo
stole the presidency but the final verdict on her accountability forcing
to leave Malacañang will be done by the people themselves in the street
parliament and not by Congress.
Movie actor Rez
Cortez recited a poem and, aptly, called the national day of protest –
which coincided with the proclamation of Macapagal-Arroyo as president
last year – as ushering in a “new day.”
To the cheers of
thousands, Carmen “Nanay Mameng” Deunida, well-known urban poor leader,
minced no words calling the President “mandaraya,” “manloloko”
and “magnanakaw” (cheater, liar and thief) as she urged the crowd
to remain united and firm in building a new society. She also called her a
“tsunano” (a small tsunami).
The young emcees kept
the rallyers in high spirits and energy under the blistering heat and
drizzle with their chants of “Gloria Arroyo, pekeng pangulo; pekeng
pangulo, pabagsakin sa pwesto!” (Gloria Arroyo, fake president; fake
president, force her out). The now-popular Gloria ringtone were also
replayed and replayed all throughout.
Unlike Oust-Estrada
As evident in the
June 24 rally, the new Oust-Gloria campaign appears to be unlike the
Oust-Estrada movement which began with mass protests by militant groups
calling for the former president’s resignation amid a series of scandals
and charges of illegal gambling pay-offs, transforming itself into a wave
of gigantic wave of multisectoral protests that ended with his ouster in
January 2001. This time, the opening salvo of the new campaign – held only
four years after Estrada’s fall – already began with a consortium of
various political forces and shades including a bloc of traditional
opposition politicians participating.
Reacting to the June
24 rallyers, Macapagal-Arroyo said she will not resign and called her
detractors “economic saboteurs.” Critics have scored her for foisting an
“undeclared martial law” for blocking anti-government rallies and
threatening to charge those calling for her to resign with sedition and
rebellion.
Meanwhile, calls for
her to resign have gathered momentum with other legislators and
presidential claimants, some of whom were her former allies, calling for a
snap presidential election. Joining the call last Friday was former Sen.
Raul Roco, Macapagal-Arroyo’s former education secretary and also
presidential aspirant, who also offered himself for any future role.
Former President Corazon Aquino characteristically asked for the nation to
pray.
Luminous in the
political horizon is the option for forming a transition coalition council
that will craft a new government and it is quite visibly gaining
acceptance among more and more Filipinos. A Bayan handout expresses this
view:
“More Filipinos are
suggesting the formation of a ‘transition council’ composed of various
forces and sectors who uphold democratic and nationalist principles.
Important is the representation in the council by democratic, patriotic
and progressive forces who will implement pro-people programs such as
national industrialization, genuine land reform, wage increase, resumption
of peace talks and so on. The council will pave the way for electing a new
government. The people shall be assured of their democratic choice for the
new president.” Bulatlat
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