`Rats’ Mar Macapagal-Arroyo Visit in New York

Mainstream media reported the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s trip to New York and the resulting protest actions organized by various cause-oriented groups there. According to them, Macapagal-Arroyo was put in a “stage of discomfort,” based on feedback from those close to her.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

AT INFESTATION: A Bayan-USA rapid action team (RAT) demonstrates across the United Nations as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presides over Security Council summit Photo courtesy of Bayan-USA

The government is currently euphoric over the so-called success of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s trip to New York to attend the United Nations summit and world leaders’ forum from Sept. 12 to 15. After all, she was the first Filipino leader, the first Asian head of state and the first woman leader to preside over a summit of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Conspicuously missing from the government’s press releases is the fact that she was hounded by “rats” while in New York. These are not long-tailed rodents belonging to the genus rattus, but rapid action teams (Rats) that followed Macapagal-Arroyo for during her New York visit.

The protest actions, however, were staged even before Macapagal-Arroyo’s departure from the Ninoy Aquino Centennial Airport in Parañaque City last Sept. 12.

Three days before her departure, members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Anakbayan (Nation’s Youth) rallied at the U.S. Embassy in Manila to condemn the trip to New York, saying Macapagal-Arroyo has “no right to speak in behalf of the Philippines in front of international leaders.”

In New York and New Jersey Sept. 10, a chapter of Anakbayan held a press conference to urge the international community to condemn Macapagal-Arroyo.

The day after saw Anakbayan members distributing stickers to jeepney drivers in Quezon City with messages “God knows Gloria does not pay,” “Barya na lang ang kaya sa umaga dahil sa OPH (The people only have loose change in the morning due to oil price hikes),” and “Bayad muna bago baba, drayber at pasahero ang kawawa” (Pay first before alighting, driver and passengers are pitiful).

This activity was also done in preparation for the transport strike to be held on the day of the president’s departure.

Immediately after the transport strike last Sept. 12, students, some of them still dressed in school uniforms, went to the airport to stage a different kind of send-off ceremonies for Macapagal-Arroyo. Chanting “GMA, you can run but you can't hide” and “goodbye and good riddance.” Around 200 activists from the League of Filipino Students (LFS) likewise staged a sit-down protest.

The youth group Anakbayan called Sept. 12 as a “day of youth and civil disobedience.”

After the 12-hour flight to San Francisco, Macapagal-Arroyo took a chartered flight to New York City. According to reports, the government booked four first-class seats, six business class seats and 24 economy seats for her entourage.

Rat sightings

On the eve of her arrival, the first Rat was seen along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where members of the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-USA chapter and the NY Coalition for Gloria’s Ouster held an “unwelcome party” in front of the Philippine Consulate office.

The organizers said Rats’ “Gotta-Go-Glo" tour which trailed Macapagal-Arroyo helped expose her fake and illegitimate regime to the world.

“We're not surprised since Arroyo and other rotten, stinky and garbage leaders of states will be in New York this week for the UN assembly,” said Berna Ellorin of Bayan-USA. “Rats are always attracted to the foul stench of garbage, Gloria Arroyo being the most rotten of them all.”

In the afternoon of Sept. 15, NYCHRP and Bayan USA participated the Troops Out Now Coaltion (TONC) rally on the issues concerning the Palestine and Philippines at the UN meeting. The protesters, in black shirts with their Rats paraphernalia, then proceeded to the Philippine Consulate, just a few blocks from the TONC rally point, the place for the final public appearance of Macapagal-Arroyo in New York.

Arcy Yuson of Anakbayan revealed that some of the protesters came holding folded-up placards, waiting for their colleagues in front of the Consulate because the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and security officials threatened them with arrest if they didn't move, “even though all we were doing was standing on the sidewalk, waiting."

Despite the threat, protesters unfurled a gigantic, blimp-sized banner reading "Oust the US-Arroyo Regime - Bayan USA," which the public stared at during the presidential multi-car grand entrance to the event site.

Ellorin asserted that anti-Arroyo groups in New York have responded to "humiliate and expose this fake head of state where ever she goes,” especially at the Consulate’s exhibit.

The protest put her in a “stage of discomfort," said Ellorin citing response from visitors to the Philippine Consulate who saw Macapagal-Arroyo during an art exhibit.

About 90 protesters were across the street from the Consulate calling for her ouster. Ellorin confirmed from the visitors that attendees inside the gallery heard them from inside the Consulate building, disrupting the flow of the evening's event.

Allied organizations that joined the BAYAN-USA's Fifth Avenue protest calling for Arroyo's ouster included the International Action Center, Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV) Organizing Asian Communities, Troops Out Now Coalition, The Million Worker March, NY Labor Against the War, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), Be Not Afraid, Black and White Movement, Contak Philippines, and Movement for a Free Philippines, as well as individuals traveling to New York from Los Angeles and the Philippines. Even a handful of ticketed guests to the Consulate who originally came to see the exhibit opted to join the protest across the street instead.

On the same day, an Oust-Arroyo picket was also held in front of the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles and an outdoor teach-in and picket on the political crisis was sponsored by the Justice Not War in the Philippines Campaign (JNW) also in New York. JNW, launched in February 2003 in NYC, is working hand in hand with other anti-war formations in the Philippines and in the US against US military intervention and repression in the Philippines and around the world.

UN Security Council resolutions

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo earlier said that the president would be facing world leaders and the international press with confidence after the impeachment case was “killed” at the House of Representatives last September 7.

After the meeting, the UNSC unanimously passed two resolutions. Resolution 1624 called upon all 191 UN member-states to "prohibit by law incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts" and to "deny safe haven" to anyone even suspected of incitement. Meanwhile, Resolution 1625 called on member-states to adopt measures, including preventive-diplomacy initiatives, to prevent conflict in Africa.

The adoption of the first resolution was considered a personal coup for British Prime Minister Tony Blair after the worst “terrorist” attack on British soil.

Included in Macapagal-Arroyo’s schedule were bilateral meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and “informal talks” with US President George Bush.

In question

The NYCHRP and the Philippine Forum have consulted with their lawyers concerning the apartment of Philippine Consul General to New York Cecilia Rebong at the Trump Tower in Manhattan, which reportedly costs $10,000 a month. The two-bedroom apartment is located near the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.

Rebong, who started occupying the apartment last July, earlier admitted that the government shoulders the rental, but said it had the approval of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Rebong added that the apartment intended for her at the building owned by the DFA along 66th Street is being renovated.

Protesters, however, said that they expect taxes and other fees they pay to the government to be used for better service to migrant workers and not for profligate spending of government officials.

Rebong, who couldn’t find an alternative, said the contract for the rental will end early next year.

Despedida

On Sept. 16, a "Goodbye and Good Riddance, Gloria" Despedida Party was held in front of the Consulate.

With giant cardboard rat cut-outs and rat masks in tow, various Rats went around New York calling for Macapagal-Arroyo’s ouster.

"[NYC Mayor Michael] Bloomberg was right when he recently declared a rat infestation problem in the city (as) we are experiencing the foulest stench from a rotten, illegitimate, and fake president in our midst,” said Ellorin. “Now it is time for the people of the world and the rats of New York to take out the garbage by ousting the Arroyo regime."

”We Filipinos in the U.S. are one with the Filipino people all over the world in calling for the ouster of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the establishment of a multi-sectoral transitional council to decide the next best step for our suffering nation," she said.

Bayan-USA also announced that the Filipino contingent to the coming national anti-war demonstration in Washington DC on Sept. 24 will also echo calls for her ouster alongside the demand for the pull out of U.S. troops in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, anti-Arroyo protesters in the country have already planned for demonstrations upon Macapagal-Arroyo’s return to the Philippines Sept. 17. Bulatlat

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