Tumultuous week ends in protest rally calling for Arroyo ouster
Posted by: Karol Ilagan | February 16, 2008 at 5:04 pm
The Daily PCIJ

IN the wake of corruption allegations against the Arroyo administration over the national broadband network (NBN) fiasco, some 10,000 protesters assembled in Makati yesterday in the first big anti-Arroyo demonstration since key witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. surfaced to testify at the Senate last week.

Themed “Sobra na, tama na, kumilos na (Enough, stop this, let’s act now),” the protest rally brought together diverse groups of government critics — students, artists, workers, professionals, lawyers, businessmen, the religious, and civil society — all calling for the ouster of Arroyo and the resignation of Cabinet officials for their alleged involvement in the NBN controversy.

In his first public appearance in an anti-Arroyo rally, NBN whistleblower Jose de Venecia III accused the President and her family of supposedly gaining P10 billion from the botched $329-million (about P16 billion) NBN project.

De Venecia claimed that the P10 billion in “commission” was intended for “First Gentleman (Jose Miguel Arroyo), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, (Benjamin) Abalos, and their cabal in Malacañang.”

“Hindi ko po masisikmura ito. Ang P16 billion na uutangin mula sa gobyerno ng China, babayaran ninyo at ng mga anak ninyo (I cannot, in conscience, accept this. You and your children will be the ones paying for the P16 billion that will be loaned from the Chinese government),” de Venecia lamented.

In his speech, de Venecia encouraged the people to help and support Lozada and urged other witnesses to speak up. In particular, he called on Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chair Romulo Neri to “go to the Senate and tell the truth.” Neri was the director general of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) when it approved the NBN project without allegedly going through the regular process.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) spokesperson Renato Reyes said that the presence of different sectors such as seminarians, members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, businessmen, employees, and professionals was “something new” to him.

Reyes added that this gives the anti-Arroyo protest much more momentum and significance in anticipation of the continuation of Senate hearings on the NBN deal on Monday. “It’s very encouraging. It gives you a good gauge of the pulse of the people,” he said.

Resignation calls

The Makati rally came on the heels of resignation calls aired by various groups, including the influential Makati Business Club (MBC). The MBC last Tuesday called on Environment Secretary Lito Atienza and Neri to resign for allegedly trying to prevent Lozada from testifying in the Senate.

In a statement, the MBC said that the Cabinet officials’ “protection at any cost of the interests of those in power render them unworthy of the people’s trust.” The group also expressed its support for the Senate’s continued pursuit of the truth behind the scandal-ridden NBN deal.

The University of the Philippines faculty took a similar stand, demanding Neri’s resignation as head of CHED and chairman of the UP Board of Regents, the university’s highest policy making body.

The UP faculty referred to Neri as Mrs Arroyo’s “good boy” and denounced his instruction to Lozada to “moderate the greed” of Abalos regarding his alleged $130-million commission from NBN. They also stressed that not only does Neri lack the minimum formal requirement of a doctorate degree for his position as CHED chair, he also lacks the most important qualification — “the moral high ground required of a person entrusted with reviving the country’s decaying higher education system.”

The League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) also called on Neri to step down. “We want him out of CHED and we demand that he be held accountable for his role in the NBN-ZTE deal,” said ACT chair Antonio Tinio in an Inquirer report.

For its part, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) saluted Lozada’s public confession, which according to the bishops, “may be considered a providential event that may yet save our country from being hostage to scandalous and shady government deals that offend the common good and serve only personal, family and group interests.” The bishops also strongly lamented the absence of social conscience, which is the root cause of systemic graft and corruption in the country.

In demanding Arroyo’s resignation, the activist policy think tank Action for Economic Reforms (AER) said that “fighting corruption is a question of leadership,” deploring the President’s “repeated betrayal of the public trust.”

“She has no right to sit as President a minute longer,” the group said, even as it also called for the resignation of all other officials involved in the NBN fiasco, including Neri, members of the NEDA’s Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), and Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and other military officers who are detained in Camp Crame on rebellion charges that stemmed from the November 29 standoff at the Manila Peninsula in Makati, also issued a statement that was read in the rally. The group demanded Arroyo’s resignation on charges that her husband and a former aide benefited from the alleged overprice of the $329-million telecommunications contract.

“Panahon na para magdesisyon. Panahon na para manindigan. Panahon na para kumilos. Panahon na para mamili ng bagong lider ang ating bayan,” read its statement.

‘Singing an old tune’

The throng of people in Makati’s central business district crying out for the President to step down, however, did not alarm Malacañang. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in an Inquirer report that calls for another “people power” to topple the administration was like “singing an old tune.” Bunye also noted that the crowd turnout was relatively smaller compared to similar mass actions in the past, showing that the people were “tired of destabilization.”

Reyes said, in response, “Recycled na nga ‘yung placard namin pero kasi same pa rin ‘yung issue. Pareho pa rin yung problema.” He stressed that the concept of accountability is unheard of in the Arroyo government.

United Opposition spokesperson Adel Tamano said that the people in Malacañang “are tone-deaf (and they) cannot hear the cries of the people.”

“We’re simply asking the president in a nice way to clean up her mess,” replied de Venecia, explaining that they are just expressing their feelings and the status of the nation.

Another tipping point?

Political analyst and Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER) executive director Ramon Casiple said that it’s still early to tell the repercussions of the recent protests calling for Arroyo’s ouster. But he noted that the situation is definitely developing and what’s interesting, according to him is the involvement of the middle class and other various sectors.

Casiple also explained that the nature of the current crisis in the administration has shifted from political legitimacy to political survival. “The Arroyo family definitely knows it is fighting for its political survival,” he said.

However damaging Lozada’s testimony was, Casiple noted that it does not yet have the status of a smoking gun in terms of the ZTE-NBN scandal. “He simply does not have the insider’s knowledge to pin down the hidden principals,” Casiple posted in his blog. “What made his case more politically important is the kidnapping. This, in itself, promises an entire panoply of issues related to Malacañang’s use of executive power.”

“Given the strength of the Lozada testimony, it is only a matter of time before others break rank and continue his story,” he said. “Given the public response, it is only a matter of time before a critical mass will be reached and a political denouement is reached.”

The rally ended peacefully past 8 p.m. with no reports of any untoward incident, according to Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman in a GMA News online report.

The next protest rally is set on February 25, the 22nd anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution.

20th February 2008 | Filed under: In The News | Click here to follow any responses to this entry: RSS 2.0 feed