CHA-CHA: one-way ticket to the blue
ANGELO RUSS YBAÑEZ
February|2009
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be making her biggest miscalculation. Cha-Cha is now laying the ground for a decisive confrontation between the US-backed Arroyo regime and the Filipino people who see it as Arroyo’s oneway ticket to prolong her rule.
As early as the public debut of the Hello Garci scandal, President Gloria Arroyo and her minions have been brokering to change the charter. Desperate to hammer down her agenda unnoticed by the public and the media, the administration dubiously initiated a “people’s initiative,” soliciting signatures to amend the Constitution––a process that is supposed to be initiated by the people themselves. The project was pursued despite the earlier ruling of the Supreme Court that it was baseless and illegal.
The Arroyo administration has also attempted to bait the MILF to surrender by capitalizing on the ill-fated MOA-AD and riding on the movements for federalism. Arroyo however failed to get the support of the federalists in both chambers of the Congress.
It is seemingly obvious that Mrs. Arroyo maliciously intends to stay in power beyond year 2010, or at least set an escape route to get away from the piles of complaints and accountabilities that await her once she steps down from power. With this alone, she has all the reasons to secure the backing of all government machineries and the political support of the United States.
Such is why Arroyo is committed to grant 100% ownership of our natural resources to foreign businesses, using Cha-Cha as a prime instrument to ensure economic, intellectual, and actual physical control of the entire country. The neo-liberal policies of deregulation and privatization have brought about faster pace of denationalizing major sectors of our economy. Reinforced with the bias for comprador-type of businesses, this scheme opens up vital areas such as logging and mining concessions, public utilities, and government mega-projects, lubricated by ‘development aids’ of multilateral financial institutions.
The use of political supremacy to coax the small factions of the Opposition to submit to her tutelage is also an integral part of GMA’s schemes. President Arroyo controls two of the biggest political parties in the bureaucracy, LAKAS and KAMPI, and uses it as a machinery to materialize her political ambitions. Employing militarist tactics, GMA has also stepped up her campaign against critical groups and individuals.
The Arroyo government has continuously trampled the Constitutional provision that guarantees equal protection of the law with her draconian Human Security Act and several presidential proclamations that curtail civil liberties. But this is destined to fail as the people can never be silenced. The Arroyo regime’s legal maneuvers and militaristic rule may have gagged many critics but it can never suppress the social volcano waiting to erupt. The people’s verdict shall continue to haunt her even if she succeeds to stay in power beyond 2010.
ANGELO RUSS YBAÑEZ
February|2009
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be making her biggest miscalculation. Cha-Cha is now laying the ground for a decisive confrontation between the US-backed Arroyo regime and the Filipino people who see it as Arroyo’s oneway ticket to prolong her rule.
As early as the public debut of the Hello Garci scandal, President Gloria Arroyo and her minions have been brokering to change the charter. Desperate to hammer down her agenda unnoticed by the public and the media, the administration dubiously initiated a “people’s initiative,” soliciting signatures to amend the Constitution––a process that is supposed to be initiated by the people themselves. The project was pursued despite the earlier ruling of the Supreme Court that it was baseless and illegal.
The Arroyo administration has also attempted to bait the MILF to surrender by capitalizing on the ill-fated MOA-AD and riding on the movements for federalism. Arroyo however failed to get the support of the federalists in both chambers of the Congress.
It is seemingly obvious that Mrs. Arroyo maliciously intends to stay in power beyond year 2010, or at least set an escape route to get away from the piles of complaints and accountabilities that await her once she steps down from power. With this alone, she has all the reasons to secure the backing of all government machineries and the political support of the United States.
Such is why Arroyo is committed to grant 100% ownership of our natural resources to foreign businesses, using Cha-Cha as a prime instrument to ensure economic, intellectual, and actual physical control of the entire country. The neo-liberal policies of deregulation and privatization have brought about faster pace of denationalizing major sectors of our economy. Reinforced with the bias for comprador-type of businesses, this scheme opens up vital areas such as logging and mining concessions, public utilities, and government mega-projects, lubricated by ‘development aids’ of multilateral financial institutions.
The use of political supremacy to coax the small factions of the Opposition to submit to her tutelage is also an integral part of GMA’s schemes. President Arroyo controls two of the biggest political parties in the bureaucracy, LAKAS and KAMPI, and uses it as a machinery to materialize her political ambitions. Employing militarist tactics, GMA has also stepped up her campaign against critical groups and individuals.
The Arroyo government has continuously trampled the Constitutional provision that guarantees equal protection of the law with her draconian Human Security Act and several presidential proclamations that curtail civil liberties. But this is destined to fail as the people can never be silenced. The Arroyo regime’s legal maneuvers and militaristic rule may have gagged many critics but it can never suppress the social volcano waiting to erupt. The people’s verdict shall continue to haunt her even if she succeeds to stay in power beyond 2010.
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