Protests mark Arroyo’s arrival in HK

March 31, 2008

Around 1,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) called on President Arroyo to resign as she arrived in Hong Kong yesterday to try and drum up foreign investments.

The protesters gathered outside the hotel where the President, dogged at home by falling popularity and corruption allegations, was due to give a speech to invited members of the Filipino community in Hong Kong.

“Overseas workers do not welcome Gloria Arroyo in Hong Kong,” said Eman Villanueva, secretary general of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, one of the groups organizing Sunday’s protest.

“She should go back to the Philippines and face the charges against her and her government,” he added.

Hong Kong has a large Filipino community, mostly working in domestic service.

“We want to send a message to the business community that if they invest in the Philippines, they are supporting a tyrant,” Villanueva said.

The protesters shouted “Oust, oust GMA,” referring to the President’s initials and held banners condemning extra-judicial killings and corruption in the country.

Also, militant groups Migrante International and The Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM-HK), an alliance of anti-Arroyo groups, urged OFWs to boycott the events being organized by the camp of Mrs. Arroyo and join their protests.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, during a chance interview, however,

said the Chief Executive would not be distracted by the series of protests in the former British colony.

“This is something that goes with democracy… We have to leave with it. I don’t think the President would be distracted by the demonstrators,” Bunye said.

Before she left Manila, Mrs. Arroyo said recent economic growth needed to be reinforced with an “aggressive outreach to investors.”

“Our trip to Hong Kong is another action we are taking to continue to bolster our economy through more investments,” she said in a departure statement.

Mrs. Arroyo, who will make a keynote speech at a Credit Suisse economic forum today, said her cash-strapped government was “on the verge of a balanced budget” for the first time in years.

Major donors, such as the World Bank, last week praised the Philippines’ 7.3 percent economic growth last year — the highest in 30 years, but warned that it needed to woo more investment and upgrade its infrastructure.

Massive street protests have called for her resignation over graft charges involving her husband and a close political ally.

by: Sherwin C. Olaes and AFP

source: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20080331hed2.html

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