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State of suppression

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s (GMA) declaration of national emergency is a desperate act of an isolated and illegitimate regime to hold on to power in the guise of protecting democracy and the interest of the Filipino people and will only lead to an increase in human rights violations.

Barely 24 hours after GMA’s proclamation of national emergency, human rights violations have already been committed against the opposition and critics of the government. Prof. Randy David, Congressman Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, and two unnamed staff of Congressman Satur Ocampo were arrested, all without warrants.

The media is also under attack. Elements of the Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group (CIDG) raided and closed down the Daily Tribune. Furthermore, the government is starting to regulate media’s activities as seen in the guidelines that the former issued the latter and in the deployment of soldiers in various television and radio stations like ABS-CBN and GMA7. These are clear violations of press freedom.

It is a fact that GMA is “under attack” from various groups — the left, the right, religious groups, professionals and businessmen, and even the media — but this is not simply because these groups are interested to snatch political power from GMA. GMA is heavily criticized because of the failure of her administration to address the economic crisis besetting the people and because of the political maneuvering that GMA and her allies have been doing (“killing” the impeachment, fast tracking the Charter Change, etc.) aside from the fact that GMA’s legitimacy is still under question.

In the final analysis, the declaration of national emergency leading to the unhampered repression by the current regime will only be beneficial for GMA and her allies. This also proves that GMA will do everything to preserve the status quo even if it means suppressing the opposition and the Filipino people in general.

Lastly, the use of force, repression and suppression will not solve the present political crisis especially from a government whose legitimacy is under question. On the other hand, the opposition is starting to unite and the impoverish population is getting restless and is looking for substantial change. Hopefully, GMA will realize this before a bloody situation occurs. #

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