Enraged with the “death” of the impeachment case against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the House of Representatives last week, overseas Filipino workers vowed to stage more protests and intensify their “No Resign, No Remit” campaign.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Filipinos in the United States have formed Rapid Action Teams (Rats) that will follow and hound President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during her visit for the 2005 United Nations World Summit in Manhattan, New York on Sept. 15 and 16.

Dubbed as "Gotta-Go-Glo," the hounding tour which is a joint effort of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-USA and NYC for Gloria's Ouster Coalition will kick off upon the president’s arrival in New York a week before the UN summit.

"It befits Arroyo to have ‘Rats’ follow her around the city wherever she goes," said Bayan-USA’s Berna Ellorin. "Rats, characteristically, smell and are attracted to what is rotten in our society. Arroyo has shown the rotten and heinous nature of her administration and now must heed the people's call for her to step down."

As militant and other progressive groups in the United States were gearing up for Macapagal-Arroyo’s coming trip, state leaders going to the UN were urged to condemn the Philippine president’s “lying, cheating, stealing and ‘terrorism.’”

Speaking in a rally before the U.S. Embassy in Manila Sept. 9, Vencer Crisostomo, League of Filipino Students (LFS) national secretary general, said Macapagal-Arroyo “has no credibility to represent the country much less to preside over the (world summit on counter-terrorism). She should not be listened to by the international leaders.”

At the yearly UN General Assembly, the Philippine president is slated to preside over a summit on counter-terrorism.

Macapagal-Arroyo just eluded possible impeachment for constitutional violations when her political allies in the House of Representatives succeeded in having the impeachment complaints shot down. Reports were rife however that many votes junking the impeach complaints were bought by several millions of pesos.

Police dispersed the LFS rally in Manila which was joined by about 800 students and arrested two of them.

Internationally coordinated

Meanwhile, Migrante International secretary general Maita Santiago said that “the consequences of Macapagal Arroyo’s ‘pyrrhic victory’ in hiding the truth and avoiding justice through legislative means will now unfold before her own eyes” as “people will march in the streets across the country and around the world  to exert all-out effort to oust Arroyo’s illegitimate, fascist and puppet regime.”

Member organizations of Migrante International in Canada, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Europe and the United States held parallel mobilizations in front of the Philippine Consulates in their respective cities on Sept. 6 and 7 as anti-Arroyo protesters in the Philippines held big rallies at the Batasan Complex and People Power monument.

In a protest in Hong Kong on Sept. 6, Migrante gathered at least signatures of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to calling for the president’s resignation.

“We want to add our collective voice in calling for a change in the system of governance and the first thing to do is to remove the fake President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from power,” said Dolores Balladares, chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK) and spokesperson of the Outrage-HK (Overseas Filipinos Unite to Remove the Arroyo Government).
 
Outrage is a coalition of migrant organizations and advocates calling for the immediate ouster of the president. 
 
“For the first time in our history, we were allowed to exercise our right to vote through the overseas absentee voting only to be bastardized by Arroyo and her accomplices,” she averred.

In Canada, 12 Filipino-Canadian organizations have issued a statement denouncing “the prolongation of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s illegitimate administration.”

“With the recent derailment of a just impeachment process, we therefore join the Filipino people in exerting all-out effort to directly oust Arroyo from presidency as the only viable option left,” the statement said.

Among the main issues Migrante and its members raised on why the president should be immediately removed from power were “her inutility and inaction over successive oil price hikes and the implementation of the regressive expanded value added tax, Macapagal-Arroyo and her regime's heightening export, criminal neglect and implementation of anti-migrant policies.”

The OFWs’ activities included rallies, petition signings, forums, issuance of statements and press releases to local consulates and embassies, and concerts.

Migrante members also support the call of people’s organizations for a transitional council that will temporarily take over the reins of government upon Macapagal-Arroyo’s ouster by people power. The council will be made up of a cross-section of Philippine society and will implement urgent reforms and eventually choose their leaders through an election.

‘No Resign, No Remit’

Meanwhile, in a Sept. 8 forum at the University of the Philippines, OFW dependents intensified their call for the boycott of remittances through formal banking channels until Macapagal-Arroyo steps down. OFWs all over the world started the “No Resign, No Remit” campaign in July in lieu of the controversial “Hello Garci” tapes.

Children of OFWs who are members of Migrante Youth urged their parents to stop using the banking system for remittances in protest of the junking of the impeachment complaint.

Remittances from more than seven million overseas workers amounting to US$8.5 billion last year augmented the gross domestic product to about 10 percent, which boosts the country’s failing economy. Bulatlat 

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