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GMA is accountable to the Cordillera

Lost in the din of the national debate whether GMA should resign or not, is her glaring culpability in the ongoing state terrorism being perpetrated on the villagers settled in the boundary areas of Abra, Mountain Province and Ilocos Sur, and for over a month now, on the striking workers of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corporation. Yes, while the nation’s attention was focused on the immorality and illegitimacy of the Arroyo presidency, her tools of repression were sowing fear and terror in the Cordillera countryside.

It is due to GMA’s policy to lay open the resources of the Cordillera to foreign exploitation and “development” that these recent violation of a people’s right to their land and resources is being committed by elements of the AFP. The Supreme Court, taking the cue from GMA’s commitment to foreign investors, reversed its decision and allowed the entry and unhampered operations of transnational corporations in mining and other “development” projects.

This has been countered by fierce opposition by the affected communities. Gleaning from their statements and actions, these communities will not give up their land and resources without a fight. Thus, the Arroyo government, as past administrations were wont to do, ordered aerial bombardments and ground military operations to deliver their point – this land is for sale and no amount of people’s resistance will hamper the implementation of their economic plunder. GMA has likewise failed to act on the striking miners’ plight for just wages from the profit-hungry LCMC and instead, through her labor secretary applied brute force and harassment to quash the strike.

The economic dislocation and the toll of militarization on the people embolden them to continue exposing the ills of this administration. The sins of the GMA presidency against the Filipino people and especially against the national minority are multiplying and resulting to untold sufferings and misery. The people of the Cordillera have just reason to move for her immediate ouster. #

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