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Militants compare GMA with the late dictator Marcos

Same dog, different collar

BAGUIO CITY (Mar. 25) — While the Philippine Military Army (PMA) cadets savor their graduation today at Fort Del Pilar, here, as graced by the country’s military highest officials and Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), the local militants prepared a ‘variety show’ underscoring the similarities of governance between dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the current president GMA.

The Cordillera Peoples Alliance Youth Commission (CPAYC), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)-Cordillera and Ornus- KADAMAY (Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili ti Syudad) devised a skit entitled “Noon, Ngayon, Magpakailanman, Krisis at Panunupil Magkatambal”. The militants claimed that the declaration of Martial Law in 1972 is no different from the recent declaration of State of National Emergency or the Presidential Proclamation 1017.

The two-part play had in the first part the actualization of Marcos’ regime crammed with militarization from the MetroCom, how the workers suffer from hunger due to lowly salaries, and the youth have no fair access to their right to education.

The second part presented an impersonator of GMA, calling a certain Garci to ensure votes for her victory. Inclusion of a spoof of the reality game show ‘Pinoy Big Brother’, as the impersonator GMA was dubbed ‘Pinoy Big Problem’, reflects the likeness between the game show’s repressive rules and GMA’s game plan to stay in power such as Executive Order 464, General Order 5 & 6 and the proposed Charter Change.

To end the ‘variety show’, a flag dance accompanied by the song “Papuri sa Kalayaan” was presented so as to symbolize their solidarity and unrelenting campaign for GMA’s fast tracked resignation or ouster. As the song goes, “Ang mithiin natin ay ang pagkakapantay-pantay” (Our goal is to have rightful equity) which they hope the government would address immediately.

Performers also pointed out their condemnation of the political killings which they believe are measures GMA deems could collapse the mass movement. They believe that depite the continued killings, their strength and struggle will never falter; these deaths will not be meaningless, which give them more reasons to pursue their fight.

Moreover, the militants marched down Session Road towards Kilometer 0 “to let people recognize their plights” despite the city’s heightened police and military security due to GMA’s visit at the PMA graduation. A short program was held, reaffirming their protests and calling upon “nationalist soldiers to serve the wide array of masses rather than bow to the interests of the dictating few.”

Ornus-Kadamay chairperson Ignacio Pangket said, “The ouster of this illegitimate regime is worth fighting and dying for. We must not stop; we should shorten our hours of sleep in order to give ample time for the struggle to shorten GMA’s stay in power,” to counter GMA’s claim during the PMA graduation today that “her war against the communists and destabilizers is worth sacrificing her popularity rate for”.

The militants also called upon the the new roster of the country’s military service people “to rethink their options of whom to serve — the masses who have long suffered from undeserved way of living without basic needs or the ruling greedy elites who long relished the lavish life through exploiting the lands and resources aptly for all the Filipinos— and that they shun away from the dictates of the repressive Commander-in-Chief GMA. # Pink-Jean Fangon Melegrito for NORDIS

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