House Leader Denounces GMA for P3-B Pro-U.S. War Budget

Unknown to many Filipinos, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies in Congress have inserted in the 2003 national budget P3 billion to support the U.S. war on Iraq, the House minority leader revealed late last week. While the President increasingly supports the war against Iraq with more money and other forms of support, no such assistance is forthcoming for tens of thousands of her countrymen uprooted in the Armed Forces’ fresh offensives against Muslim guerrillas in Mindanao, he said.

By Gerry Albert Corpuz 
Bulatlat.com

House Assistant Minority Leader Carlos Padilla late last week accused the Macapagal-Arroyo government and its House allies of slipping P3 billion into the 2003 national budget to fund the country's support measures to the U.S. president’s war against Iraq.

At the anti-U.S. war rally held in Plaza Miranda, Manila on Valentine's Day, Padilla, a convenor of the Legislators Against War disclosed that pro-U.S. war congressmen and allies of President Arroyo approved Palace's request for the P3 billion pro-war budget.

Other reports say that the secret fund will be used to evacuate thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) expected to be uprooted by the impending war in the Persian Gulf.

Organized by Bayan Muna, the Legislators Against War assembles anti-U.S. war congressmen in the House. Others convenors are Reps. Jun Macarambon, Gilbert Remulla, Liza Maza and Crispin Beltran.

Padilla, who comes from the opposition camp, denounced the President for prioritizing her government's support to the U.S. war against Iraq, while at home thousands of ordinary people and Moro civilians are displaced by the military offensives against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"This Valentine’s Day my only message to President Arroyo is loud and clear: Make love not war," the House minority leader said.

In the same vein, the militant alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-New Patriotic Alliance) gave an ultimatum to President Macapagal-Arroyo, "Denounce war or face further isolation."

At the rally, Bayan secretary general Teddy Casiño said that U.S. President George Bush’s unjust war against Iraq has united the rich and poor, radicals and moderates, Muslims and Christians not only in the country but across the globe as well.

"Yet, President Arroyo refuses to listen. She's courting further political and moral isolation," he said.

The Bayan leader also said Macapagal-Arroyo does not only sound like Bush she “also acts like him as shown by the renewed military offensive she has ordered in Mindanao," referring to the resumption of military campaign against alleged MILF strongholds in Pikit, North Cotabato.

More than 7,000 anti-war protesters assembled at the Plaza Miranda in Manila and held an anti-U.S. war and pro-peace program from 1 to 4 p.m. before marching to the U.S. Embassy on Roxas Boulevard to highlight the March for Peace campaign. The rally was organized by the Justice Not War Coalition, Bayan, ANIB-MANGGAGAWA, an anti-war labor alliance, the Moro-Christian People’s Alliance and other organizations. The protesters were blocked by two-layer phalanx of anti-riot policemen near the American embassy.

Tens of thousands of other anti-war protesters also held simultaneous demonstrations in the country’s other major cities and town centers.

UN team asked to probe U.S. weapons

Agham (Science), an association of patriotic scientists and technologists in the country, meanwhile asked the UN weapons inspection team to investigate the production of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the United States. Its chair Dr. Giovanni Tapang said if UN wants to disarm the real threat to world peace and humanity, it should turn its inspection to the U.S. government.

"The U.S. is the biggest producer and seller of nuclear bombs, biological and chemical weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction," Tapang told Bulatlat.com.

He said the U.S. has 10,600 nuclear warheads and has produced over 70,000 nuclear weapons since the 1950s. Tapang also warned the U.S. can use 3,000 nuclear weapons from its “Enduring Stockpile” anytime its military commanders want.

The young scientist also said the U.S. is the current leader in research and manufacture of chemical and biological weapons like anthrax and VX nerve gas.

Rita Baua, secretary general of the anti-imperialist group International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-Philippine chapter), yesterday echoed Tapang's call to place the U.S. under the UN inspection team.

"U.S. forces have killed over 15 million people all over the world since the end of the last war in America’s quest for global hegemony,” Baua said. “If the Bush government is really sincere in disarming the world of weapons of mass destruction, it should set an example by disarming itself instead of taking on Iraq and other small sovereign nations."

ILPS' Baua said the next stop of the UN inspection team should be in Washington,  DC and other American states believed as sites for production of weapons of mass destruction. She also disclosed that Filipino migrants and activists in the United States and Europe joined the international day of protest against U.S. war on Iraq over the weekend.

Stay neutral

Meanwhile, the City Council of Caloocan unanimously passed on Thursday a resolution asking Macapagal-Arroyo to stay neutral on the Middle East crisis for the sake of country's interest and global peace.

City councilors Benedicto Gonzales and Nathanael Santiago of Bayan Muna, majority and minority floor leaders, urged the council to declare as urgent and immediately pass Resolution No.3459 in the face of the impending war.

Both councilors said they would ask other councils in cities and municipalities to pass similar resolutions and saturate Malacañang Palace with anti-war petitions to press Macapagal-Arroyo for a change of heart.

"U.S. preemptive strike brings the world back to the age of barbarism,” the two councilors said in a joint statement. “It destroys what the civilized world has been trying to build, the non-aggressive relations among sovereign nations and the justice system founded on due process and the presumption of innocence of anyone until proven guilty." Bulatlat.com

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