being used in combat operations in the Sulu area. The Congress based its opposition on the Philippines Constitution, which barred the use of foreign troops for combat. There is a big loophole involving "advisers" and there was a firestorm regarding of how much "advising" US special forces were really doing.
Arroyo's preposterous claims about a plot involving the Communists and disgruntled elements in the military is akin to having Bush declare a state of emergency claiming that Kerry is in cahoots with Al-Qaeda.
Bush and Arroyo sleep in the same bed for she is Bush's staunchest supporter in the entire country.
The problems in the Philippines are the result of an axis of evil made up of a small elite that controls all the wealth and their allies in the military and the Catholic Church. Arroyo is only the latest "front man" for that axis of evil:
Arroyo bans film at insistence of Philippines Catholic hierarchy
By Richard Phillips
23 April 2001
Two months after her installation as Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has prohibited screenings of Live Show, an internationally acclaimed documentary film, and forced the resignation of the country's chief censor because he opposed the ban. Arroyo moved against the film after Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin and other Catholic Church leaders called on the government to do so.
Directed by Jose Javier Reyes, the documentary—which Arroyo claimed was “illicit, lewd and offensive”—examines the desperate lives of young Filipino men and women, mainly from rural areas, who perform live sex acts in Manila nightclubs. Also known as Tora, it was shown at film festivals in Europe, North America and Australia during 2000, had been approved by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), and was already screening in Philippine cinemas.
Prior to its recall, MTRCB chairman Nicanor Tiongson, a well-known film critic and academic was summonsed to a March 18 meeting with Cardinal Sin, who demanded the film's withdrawal. Tiongson, who was appointed chief censor only five weeks earlier on Sin's recommendation, rejected the Archbishop's demand. He later told the press that he was “traumatised” by Sin, who was “reeking with arrogance” and had acted as a “political tactician, not a priest”.
The next day Arroyo told the press that she would remove Tiongson if he did not recall the film—a threat repeated at a meeting on March 20 with the censor. Arroyo, who had not seen the film, attended the meeting with Sonia Zaldivar from the “Anti-Porno Movement” and a delegation of Catholic women's groups. Tiongson told the president he had no legal authority to reverse a decision made by the previous board and would not allow himself to be used as “an instrument for the repression of freedom of expression”.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/phil-a23.shtml The only reason there is a fracture among the elites regarding Arroyo's draconian measures is because many of them fear that social conditions and public anger will lead to a situation that they won't be able to control even if Arroyo were forced out. They fear a real revolution that would swept away with the class differences and do away with their privileges!
Of course, then there is that business with the stolen election:
Arroyo clings to Philippines presidency amid growing economic crisis
By John Roberts
1 September 2005There is no shortage of public hostility to Arroyo. Opinion polls have consistently shown that the majority of the population wants her to resign. Recent polling has shown that more than 80 percent of respondents want the president impeached.
The opposition has been sparked by revelations that Arroyo may have urged electoral officials to rig last year’s presidential election and claims that her family members may have taken bribes from operators of the country’s pervasive illegal jeuteng lottery. But underlying the discontent are concerns about rising fuel prices, job losses and declining living standards.
The failure of Casino and other “lefts” to mobilise any significant public support is in large measure because they are thoroughly compromised. In 2001, the Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and other left parties backed the so-called Peoples Power campaign supported by sections of the military, business and the Catholic hierarchy to oust Estrada and install Arroyo, claiming she would help working people. Today the “lefts” are in alliance with the right-wing backers of Estrada seeking to remove Arroyo.
The lack of any credible opposition has enabled Arroyo to hang on, for the time being at least. Six weeks ago, 10 key cabinet ministers and officials, including Arroyo’s entire economic team, walked out of the cabinet. Since then, Arroyo has been able to cling onto office by securing the tacit support of the politically influential Roman Catholic hierarchy, senior military officers and sections of big business.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/phil-s01.shtml Notwithstanding the WSWS's visceral dislike of anything they view as Stalinist (anyone that is not like them), the facts remain that Arroyo was involved in a scheme to bribe election officials in a manner that can only be compared to what we have seen in places like Ohio and Florida.
The solution to the social conditions in the Philippines lie in toppling the axis of evil from power, not in merely replacing Arroyo with an Aquino or Ramos clone, as comrade Sison has said:
The Arroyo regime has a definite objective in consistently belittling and mocking at the mass actions of the people outraged by electoral fraud, corruption, puppetry and human rights violations and in trying to frighten the people with the malicious claim that communists and Muslims are out to disrupt the mass actions. The rabid loyalists of the regime in the military and police forces are in fact preparing for the violent suppression of the mass actions.
They anticipate that the anti-Arroyo marches and rallies on July 25 on the occasion of the state of the nation address (SONA) will be larger than previous ones. Thus, they are now planning to block and assault the prospective rallyists. But the various forces in the broad united front are now alerted and are adopting the measures to frustrate the regime. Patriotic military and police officers have assured them that they will openly make a stand and act against the regime if its loyalists unleash violence against the rallying people.
The Arroyo regime would throw itself posthaste into the abyss if it used violence against the people. It does not have the resources that were still available to Marcos when he imposed a fascist dictatorship on the country. The suppression of legal and peaceful but militant mass actions would give justification to a wide range of militant actions for proving the inability of the regime to govern in the urban areas. Such actions would encourage the rapid spread of tactical offensives against the local police forces in the rural areas, as in Nepal from 1996 onwards.
The prolongation of the Arroyo regime by any means is nothing but an aggravation of the socio-economic and political crisis of the ruling system of big compradors and landlords. However, even if impeachment proceedings would induce Arroyo to resign and enable De Castro to replace Arroyo, he would not be able to last long in power. He would dig his own political grave by following the same Arroyo policies dictated by the US and the IMF, World Bank and WTO. The people would reject him as one complicit in electoral fraud, corruption and other high crimes of the Arroyo regime.
The broad masses of the people would not be satisfied with the replacement of one reactionary president by another through whatever method. They want ultimately to overthrow the rotten ruling system of big compradors and landlords and to establish a truly new democratic system of the working people and the middle social strata. They wish to bring about a new Philippines that is independent, democratic, just, progressive, prosperous and peace-loving. They want to liberate themselves from the clutches of imperialism and reaction.
PRWC
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
