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Saturday, March 15, 2008
Protesters press for Arroyo's resignation
MANILA -- Thousands of students and left-wing activists pressed their call for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's resignation Friday in the third mass protest in a month over corruption allegations implicating her and her husband.
Several Roman Catholic bishops and dozens of priests and nuns critical of Arroyo joined the rally at a park in central Manila.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
Some released doves and green balloons to signify peace and the search for truth.
But unlike in the Makati rally, the personalities who attended the youth gathering at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila Friday were not invited to speak on stage and were relegated to the sidelines. They include Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Gina de Venecia -- wife of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., and former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr.
Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said allowing politicians to participate in any interfaith rally results in the loss of the occasion's solemnity.
He said the February 29 rally in Makati where former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada were called and spoke on stage should not happen again.
The Senate has been investigating allegations that Arroyo, her husband, and a former elections chief benefited from huge kickbacks in an aborted US$330 million deal with China's ZTE Corp. to set up a nationwide broadband network.
Truth obstructions
Presidential spokesmen have dismissed the charges as hearsay and opposition "grandstanding." The president's husband and the former elections chief - who resigned last year after he was implicated - have both denied any wrongdoing. ZTE has denied bribing anyone. Arroyo canceled the contract in September because of the controversy.
Organizers of the Manila rally estimated the crowd at 10,000, while police offered a conservative figure of 6,000, much smaller than the tens of thousands who rallied two weeks ago in the biggest protest since the opposition-dominated Senate opened hearings into the scandal last year.
Scores of marchers from urban poor communities carried bamboo crosses with placards saying, "Stop the Suffering" as they chanted "Oust Gloria!"
In a statement, Renato Reyes, secretary general of the left-wing alliance Bayan, said the issues of "corruption, human rights abuses and abuse of power" remain, "so the protests will continue."
Bishop Teodoro Bacani repeated a call by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for Arroyo to "remove all obstructions to the discovery of the truth" behind the broadband deal.
He said Arroyo hasn't yet directed her officials to speak out "no matter who gets hurt, no matter who is involved."
"We are waiting for that," Bacani said.
Democratic freedom
Deputy presidential spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo welcomed the rally as an "exercise of the democratic freedom we all enjoy" but urged the protesters to be responsible "and express themselves in a civilized manner and not resort to name calling."
On Thursday, about 80 former senior officials who served under Arroyo and four previous administrations said in a statement they found her "complicit with and, in fact, at the center of, the corruption and cover-up" of the broadband deal.
Fajardo, the deputy presidential spokeswoman, described the statement as "irresponsible and sweeping."
"From respected government officials, now they have simply become rumormongers. What a sad turn of events," she said.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, on the other hand, reiterated the administration's call to raise allegations of corruption in the courts, which are the proper venue for them.
He said to arrive at the truth, due process should be observed.
"We should charge those who committed mistakes in courts so that due process and rule of law would be observed," said Bunye.
Peaceful protest
Members of the Presidential Security Groups (PSG) and policemen tightened security around the Palace even if the rallyists vowed they would not march to Mendiola.
Several patrol mobiles were deployed to the area while barricades and barbed wire were also installed around Malacañang.
Thousands of policemen from nearby provinces arrived in Metro Manila to augment the forces of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in securing the rally.
Police said the protest, a four-hour demonstration dubbed "Katotohanan, Katarungan at Pagbabago," was done peacefully. It started at 3 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m.
Students from the different schools in Metro Manila participated in the protest, namely, De La Salle, Ateneo, Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), Jose Rizal University, Lyceum of the Philippines, University of Asia and the Pacific, among others.
Militant groups, church leaders, youth and students in Southern Tagalog Region and other parts of the country also held simultaneous rallies in their respective areas against the Arroyo administration.
Earlier Friday morning, a group of pro-Arroyo rallyists was at the Welcome Rotonda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City and performed activities hours before the start of the rally scheduled by anti-Arroyo groups at Liwasang Bonifacio. (AP/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (March 15, 2008 issue)
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