Home > Op-ed | To bottom

Back where it started

It is not difficult to see why after all this debate over the fate of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency, the verdict seems to be leaning towards the wisdom and viability of people power. What millions have witnessed on their TV screen about the “pre-meditated murder” of the impeachment process in the lower house and the evidence of the tyranny of the majority are proofs that yes, while the battle rages in congress, the people should not abandon the parliament of the streets to call for GMA’s ouster.

This is not to say that we are giving up on congressmen who are at a crossroads – whether for them to sustain a fraudulent, corrupt and immoral president or seek the truth and truly serve the people whom they represent. Their individual vote for the impeachment process is a single victory to be able to come up with the opposition’s dream target of 79. Thus, while we have time, let us urge our representatives to seek the road less traveled, so to speak.

Meantime, the common folk are addled by the barrage of legalese being thrown about in congress. Suddenly, a litany of rules and legal defense is being bandied about by pro-administration congressmen barring the impeachment process, citing more and more technicalities that are conveniently blurring the issue. The hands of Malacanang are busy operating, brazenly silencing the growing numbers of the opposition. It has become crystal clear that GMA’s stooges will go the extra mile to ensure that the impeachment process is dead and buried. However the minority opposition remains in a fighting mood, optimistic until the plenary. As Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna says, “it is a tug of war, the configuration changes until we get the 79 votes.”

Now the common folk’s sentiment is, “Whoever Lozano and Lopez are, or whatever they did is unimportant to us. This form and substance in the complaints are so alien to us we feel the matter of GMA’s crime is being swept under the rug. Now we know the congressmen who are not and will never be for the people’s interest. What we want is change, enough of this presidency that has brought so much suffering to us.”

As we read this, the Supreme Court has ruled that the expanded value added tax is legal and thus we expect in the coming days its lethal impact on the lives of millions of Filipinos. With so much squalor and poverty, this regime will bleed the people dry to give priority to debt servicing of foreign loans. IBON Foundation says that for every one peso revenue of the government, 94 centavos goes to paying foreign debt that the majority of the people did not benefit from. This is the sole purpose of GMA’s pushing the EVAT, thus this is another one big reason why the parliament of the streets is imperative.

Anticipating another tide of massive protest and discontent, GMA is dangling the possibility of emergency rule ala martial law. One of her security blankets, Norberto Gonzales has been nagging for the passage of the anti-terrorism bill in congress to avert further possible civil disturbance that this political and economic crisis will cause.

It is not difficult to see why the last recourse is the political strength of the people in the parliament of the streets. There, nothing is vague and lost in translation. There the issues are with no doubletalk or grand language. The people who have been estranged from the national leadership have the tribunal of the streets from where they continue to sound off the call for change. #

Home > Op-ed | Back to top