‘Counterfeit presidency’

January 17, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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By Nestor MataBy Nestor Mata
MANILA - Theres a Filipino-American anti-corruption movement in the United States that is actively lobbying for Gloria Arroyo to step down from what it branded her counterfeit presidency.

Called the Philippine Anti-corruption Movement U.S.A, Inc. or PAMUSA, it recently presented a petition to that effect to President George W. Bush, furnishing copies to key Washington executive officials and members of the US Congress. And it also sent copies to Philippine government executive officials and members of the Senate, including Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Manny Villar, Speaker Jose de Venecia, and Chief Justice Reynato Puno and his associates in the Supreme Court.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons Gloria Arroyos administration plans to sign a multi-million-dollar contract with an American public relations firm to influence the White House and the US Congress on a wide range of political, economic and security issues, and surely to counter PAMUSAs moves.
In its well-documented petition, the PAMUSA reminded Bush and company of the US governments special obligation to preserve a working democracy in the Philippines, in the same way it has been doing in other countries where democracies are similarly imperiled.

The actions and policies of Gloria Arroyo and her other officials, PAMUSA noted, have undermined the Philippines democratic processes and institutions. This has been manifested most recently in the corrupt, undemocratic and unconstitutional dismissal” by the House of Representatives of the impeachment complaint against her last year (2007).

The dismissal, it bluntly pointed out, became a certainty after the majority members had unabashedly accepted P500,000 ($11,900) each .” A few days later she brought 30 Congress members and their families on her trips to Spain, France and the United Kingdom without any discernable benefit for the country and the masses of its people hardly able to eat three square meals a day.”
These actions of Arroyo, it concluded, are condemnable and explicit bribery to prevent her being tried in the Senate like when two previous impeachment complaints in 2005 and 2006 were dismissed.”
She has tolerated grand scale corruption to sustain her dubious presidency.” She showed no scruples in spending millions of dollars for her overseas trips. Doubts persist about the legitimacy of her presidency. It cited the remarks of a retired Supreme Court justice who wrote that next only to the evils of Marcos there has not been an episode in Philippine history that has been foisted upon the nation that approximates a calamity envenomed by unprecedented and insolent corruption” as the Arroyo administration.

Arroyo has been using corruption to keep political allies in line while she does not care about human rights and political repression, including detention and disappearance of oppositionists. And that there is no better proof of human rights abuses under Arroyo than the 800 extra-judicial killings of students and farmer activists protesting the illegitimate and corrupt presidency since 2001.

More, PAMUSA informed President Bush and Washingtons officialdom that poverty in the Philippines is obviously exacerbated by unbridled corruption that in turn leads to worsening peace and order with rising criminality such as gun-for-hire, kidnapping, terrorism and of course intractable problems of high infant mortality, malnutrition and unhealthy children, and poor education until the country is caught on a downward spin toward becomes another Darfur.”

Gloria Arroyo has become the most unpopular president of the Philippines, in the words of one of PAMUSAs president Frank Wenceslao.

He urged President Bush not to wait any longer for the situation (in the Philippines) to deteriorate until disaster becomes the only alternative.” And he said that PAMUSAs organizers, supporters and volunteers that heeded the call of President Bush for NGOs and business community to fight corruption wherever it occurs would be for naught while Arroyo is allowed to continue in power through unbridled corruption and undemocratic means.”

And finally, PAMUSA appealed to President Bush to issue an executive order against Gloria Arroyo and corrupt members of her administration for political corruption, similar to the ones issued by previous US Presidents against corrupt regimes like those of former Panama President Manuel Noriega and other South American dictators, to make Gloria Arroyo to step down from her counterfeit presidency.

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Posted by News Team | Filed Under Nestor Mata 

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