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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Roxas: Beware of officials claiming to be Arroyo supporters
By Fred Roxas
OPPOSITION Senator Panfilo Lacson and Archbishop Oscar Cruz, both archenemies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, have found an ally in her own province in the person of one claiming to be her supporter.
This became very obvious lately when the country's only mayor still questionably serving a fourth term, Marino Morales of Mabalacat, Pampanga, shivered in fear upon reading newspaper reports that he blamed Lacson and Cruz as responsible in destabilizing the Arroyo administration.
This self-proclaimed supporter of President Arroyo has shown his true color, that he can not afford to fight the enemies of the President, particularly Lacson and Cruz, and defend her in time of crisis. The President cannot depend for protection against this kind of politician.
This alias "Boking" appeared to be very much afraid (for fear of what?) to comment and accept suspicions and reports about Lacson and Cruz as the sources of the deteriorating economic and political situation in the country.
Morales cannot accept the possibility that Cruz could be fomenting destabilization by intervening in the affairs of the duly constituted government under President Arroyo. Has he forgotten the separation of the church and the state adage?
Central Luzon civic and business leader, Romy P. Yusi Sr. and the president of the country's biggest group of contractors, Willy E. Castor, have shown their respective support to the President by denouncing Lacson, Cruz and other sources of destabilization. Morales cannot be expected to do the same because of his fear of "reprisal" from the church and the other enemies of the Arroyo administration.
Yusi, regional governor for Central Luzon of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PCCI), in his statement, said that church officials, like Cruz and Bishop Teodoro Bacani, because of their unjustified intervention in the affairs of the state, has been causing destabilization, specially in the home province of the President.
Yusi said when Cruz was archbishop of San Fernando (Pampanga) several years back, he was not known to have lifted a finger to denounce "jueteng" in the province and also Central Luzon where that illegal numbers game was then rampant.
Castor, president of the 12,000-member National Constructors Association of the Philippines (Nacap), on the hand, stated in a separate statement that Lacson could be lurking in the background in the alleged wiretapped conversion between the President and a Comelec official.
Castor based this on newspaper reports that the sophisticated Israeli-supplied bugging devices were acquired by the military when Lacson was head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.
Castor and Yusi suspected that the shadow of Lacson existed undiscovered on the alleged wiretapped conversion because he had possible control of the bugging equipment and the personnel trained to operate them.
When Cruz launched a crusade against "jueteng" operations, thousands of people depending on this game for livelihood were displaced. But Cruz had not spearheaded to undertake alternative livelihood projects even probably knowing that these displaced "jueteng" personnel would resort to other illegal livelihood undertakings, like engaging in illegal drugs trafficking.
Unlike Yusi and Castor, Morales did not have the temerity to criticize even only through the media President Arroyo's enemies responsible in destabilizing the government.
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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