Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 24 July 21 - 27, 2002 Quezon City, Philippines |
Cordillera
Militants say GMA is Worst`Calamity' Leaders of militant groups and other concerned citizens met in Baguio City last week to assess the performance of the Arroyo and administration and to advance prospects of real reform. Baguio
City -
Leaders of militant groups and other concerned citizens met here last Wednesday
for an assembly aimed to assess the performance of the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration and to advance prospects of real reform. Tongtongan
ti Umili (TtU) and its allied organizations expressed disgust
the 18-month old administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a press
statement emailed by the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) said. TTU
Secretary General Voltaire Tupaz
said that indeed President Arroyo has not done anything to realize her
promises to the Filipino people. According
to Tupaz, the government
policies of Arroyo are the same continuing policies that were
rejected by the people during the past regimes of Ramos and the ousted Estrada.
And the effect of these is the unending increase of rates in basic social
services like electricity, water and housing. Geraldine
Cacho, chairperson of Organisasyon
Dagiti Nakurapay
nga Umili
ti Syudad (ORNUS), said that Gloria is the worst
calamity that hit the nation. “She is the mother of globalization, the
grandmother of privatization, liberalization and deregulation that is slowly
killing us.” Fernando
Bagyan of Alyansa Dagiti
Pesante iti
Taeng ti Kordilyera (APIT-TAKO)
on the other hand, said one of the agenda that was presented to President Arroyo
was a stop to all foreign funded projects, particularly dams and mines, that
threaten the life, land and resources of all indigenous peoples. “There
are only two mining companies that exist in the Cordillera, the Philex
Mining and the Lepanto Mining, Bagyan said. “Among these two, the Lepanto is
the most destructive because it is an underground mining that threatens the life
of Kankanaeys in the area.
It should be recalled that sinking and ground subsidence
have been effects of the Lepanto mining operations.
The diversion of irrigation water is another effect that has caused
damage to the vegetable farms of the people.” CPA
said that another assessment in the said assembly was that the fight for power
among the reactionary forces has been very evident. According to Bayan Muna
Cordillera Regional Coordinator Manny Loste, “what
we have now is a democracy called elite democracy which means a democracy that
caters to the
interests of the ruling class and not of the basic masses. There is a current
alignment in the government right now because all of them are preparing for the
2004 election. These politicians are now in a fight on how to divide the
diminishing resources of the country or the spoils of imperialism.” Several
cases of human rights violations committed against members of the progressive
and militant groups continue to be reported these
days. According to Bishop Allan
Sarte, Dinteg-Cordillera Human Rights Organization representative and co-
chairman of Promotions of Church Peoples Response, the statement released by the
National Alliance for Democracy Foundation Incorporated is a horrific indicator
on the continuing human rights violations done by the government. “The
government has branded organizations that criticize the anti-poor and
anti-people policies of the government as ‘communists.’ With this tag,
legitimate people’s organizations have again become the target of the
military. Arroyo is like President Bush of the United States, if you are not
with the U.S., you are immediately considered as their foe. If you are anti-Balikatan,
you are a friend of the Abu Sayyaf and you are not
considered Filipino. If you are one of the members of the progressive groups
that uphold the basic rights of the people, you are a communist,”
said Sarte. Tupaz
added that the worst thing Arroyo made in her administration is to allow the
U.S. military forces to enter the country in the guise of war exercises where in
fact their real objective is to implement the U.S. war of aggression and their
forward basing strategy in the region. This only shows that Arroyo is a real
puppet of the United States, he added. “President Arroyo feels tall and proud in saying that she has paid all her political debts,“ Tupaz said. “That might be true as far as her ruling factions are concerned or as far as some politicians or bureaucrat capitalists and other ruling class in her government are concerned. The time has come to pay her debts to the basic sectors.” Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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