Gloria flaunts military might vs SONA protests

July 5, 2009

The show of military force last Saturday in Camp Aguinaldo as a prelude to President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 27 was widely assailed yesterday as being meant to intimidate administration critics who are preparing massive protest actions in the days leading up to the annual address.

Former President Joseph Estrada, through his spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo, said preparations being done by the Armed Forces of the Philippines-National Capital Region Command (AFP-NCRCOM) against what the administration claims as potential “assault from groups out to topple the government” could be a dry run for military rule.

Makati Mayor and United Opposition (UNO) president Jejomar Binay said the military drill was intended to intimidate.

“The military leadership and Malacañang say there is no threat to the administration. So there was no need to roll out the tanks and show off soldiers in combat gear,” he said.

“The overkill was intentional. It was intended to send a message to the opposition,” he said.

The opposition leader had said the recent bombing at the Ombudsman and the discovery of bombs in other places were meant to justify the deployment of more police and soldiers to Metro Manila prior to the SONA.

“The recent action by the military confirms our suspicion, but the protests will continue,” he said.

“We hope this preparation by the military is not in fact preparation for anything like Martial Law. Actually, the biggest threat to this government is government itself,” Salcedo said.

The opposition has proven time and again that while we speak and rally against the corrupt practices of this Administration, we will never go beyond the constitutional bounds of freedom of expression and peacable assembly,” Salcedo added as she recalled that the past interfaith rallies and protests organized by the opposition have all been peaceful.

UNO Spokesman Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda believes that the unrest that has happened under Mrs. Arroyo’s administration is due to the president’s lack of credibility, which causes the people to always be suspicious of her motives.

“GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) has not made any real effort to quell people’s fears. She has made no definite statement against constituent assembly (con-ass), no definite statement that there will be presidential elections. That is why people are uneasy,” he said.

The opposition, civil society and people’s organizations are planning a series of protest activities that will culminate in a rally on July 27 during Mrs. Arroyo’s SONA.

Binay appealed to the police and military leadership to respect the rights of the protesters.

“We have always policed our ranks, but in several cases we have accosted police and military operatives in plainclothes mingling with the crowd,” he said.

He added that in previous rallies, the police would set up checkpoints to prevent or delay the arrival of rally participants from the provinces. This constitutes a violation of civil right, he said.

“We have always acted responsibly, and we do hope the police and military will do the same. The right of the people to assemble should be respected,” he said.

Binay also said the military leadership’s statement dismissing Oplan August Moon as an attempt to sow intrigue in the AFP was “expected.”

“How can they conduct a credible investigation on a plot that allegedly involves generals known to be loyal to Mrs. Arroyo? ” he said.

Binay said based on published reports, August Moon is not a destabilization plot or a coup plot against the administration.

“It is reportedly a plan by these generals to take over the military and police leadership before the end of the year, thus solidifying Mrs. Arroyo’s hold on the military and police during the 2010 election period,” he said.

The report gives credence to information that a ranking police general is already boasting that he will be the next chief of the Philippine National Police before the year ends even when current PNP Chief Gen. Jesus Versoza has until next year to finish his term.

For her part, Grace Poe-Llamanzares, daughter of the late Fernando Poe Jr., noted the irony in the government’s priorities.

“Instead of looking forward to presenting its accomplishments to the people, this administration has to prioritize its personal security during the SONA,” said Poe-Llamanzares.

“This move clearly illustrates that this administration never really advocated the interest of the people and did not, do not, and will never have the support of the majority of the Filipino people.”

Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza also hit the military exercise as an overkill.

“It’s over-acting! Plaza averred. “They don’t have to show those APC (armored personnel carrier) and tanks to show this administration is in full control of the military.

“In fact, with the way they are doing it, the more this administration is being suspected of conditioning the minds of the people for a possible declaration of a state of emergency,” said Plaza.

The opposition camp also scored Mrs. for her failure to meet the Philippines’ commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to halve poverty and hunger by 2015.

Gilbert Remula, spokesman for Nacionalista Party headed by presidential hopeful Senator Manny Villar, said the nine years of Arroyo administration has been critical for the Philippines, one of the signatories to the MDGs to fulfill its commitment to address extreme poverty and hunger through specific measures.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) signed by the UN members in September 2000 seek to halve extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal access to primary education, promote gender equality, reduce maternal and child mortality, address the spread of HIV/AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability and promote global cooperation for development all by 2015.

But Remulla said in the last nine years, the Arroyo administration has failed in six of the eight key targets. These include eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, achieving access to primary education, reducing child mortality, reducing maternal deaths, addressing HIV/AIDS and other diseases and promoting gender equality.

He said with only a couple of weeks left, President Arroyo will boast her achievements in her last state of the nation address (SONA)

But statistics on high poverty incidence, deaths due to preventive diseases and failure send to children to primary schools will serve as glaring evidence of her failure to effectively govern in the last nine years,” said the NP spokesman.

“Mrs. Arroyo’s term instead will be widely remembered for many unresolved corruption cases such as the $330 million NBN-ZTE deal and the P730-million fertilizer scam and her failure to work on the MDGs that aim to address poverty and hunger,” he said.

Plaza of the Nationalist People’s Coaltion (NPC) also agreed with the NP assessment saying the Filipino people were further dragged down to the quagmire of poverty.

“This administration, very evidently, has failed to address poverty and hunger or even reduced them to a substantial level,” Plaza told the Tribune in a telephone interview. “Nothing has really changed except that the poor have become poorer.”

Plaza, a shoo-in for the NPC 2010 senatoriables, said that while the administration has been consistently bragging on economic growth, these supposed growth have failed to trickle down to the people.

“One of the indicators of the worsening poverty and hunger in the country is the rise in criminality, particularly on cases of thievery and hold-ups,” Plaza averred. “Lawlessness is on the rise.”

“But we don’t even have to look into the statistics of the rise in criminality. It is a common knowledge now that tens of thousands of workers have been laid off. There is a scarcity of foreign investors and the few investors we have are now relocating to China,” said Plaza.

The Agusan del Sur lawmaker said that the being a primarily agricultural country, the government should have focused more on the agricultural sector.

“But what has it done for the agricultural sector? Has there been an increased in productivity? None, because the administration is focusing more on manpower export which, in the long run, would not uplift the local economy,” said Plaza. “This government is a total failure when it comes to uplifting the economy to address the worsening poverty and hunger in the country.”

Remulla said combined figures from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Statistical and Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that poverty incidence has not improved in the last decade.

Under Goal 1 of the MDG, the Philippines aims to achieve a 22.7 percent by 2015 on the proportion of population who live below national poverty threshold or those living on $1 a day

But both the UNDP and the NSCB noted that this target is not likely to be achieved citing the number of impoverished Filipinos has not decreased. In 1991, the proportion of population below the national poverty threshold was 45.3 percent and this only improved to 32.9 percent in 2006.

In its mid-term report, the UNDP-Philippines said that although the subsistence rate improved from 20.4 percent in 1991 to 13.5 percent in 2003, 11 of the 17 regions had subsistence incidence rates that exceeded national figures. Subsistence rate is the proportion of population or families living below the subsistence or food threshold.

It noted high subsistence rate in the Zamboanga Peninsula with 32.7 percent; Caraga with 30.9 percent and region 5 with 26.6 percent based on 2003 figures.

“This only means that majority of the population, most of them in the impoverished provinces of Mindanao have remained under miserable conditions of extreme hunger and poverty under the administration of President Arroyo,” said Remulla.

The MDGs also commits UN member countries like the Philippines to achieve universal access to primary education under Goal 2. But despite an existing law on free primary education, many experts remain pessimistic that the country can achieve this goal.

NSCB figures showed that the net enrolment ratio in primary education in 1990 was at 84.6 percent and only increased to 84.8 percent in 2007. The government aims to reach 100 per cent of net enrolment ratio by 2015.

The proportion of pupils starting grade one who reach grade 6 was at 69.7 percent in 1990 but only increased to 75.3 percent in 2007 and experts believe that the target of 100 percent is not achievable.

The government has set a target of achieving 100 percent in literacy rate among 15-24 years old but the figures have stagnated at 96.6 percent from 1990 to 2003.

The UNDP mid term assessment report showed that the participation rate of children in primary education was at 90.29 percent between 2002-2003 but decreased to only 84.44 percent in 2005-2006.

The report noted the weak ability of the government in providing complete basic education services in more than 7,000 barangays.

“Overall the country is lagging behind in achieving MDG target of achieving universal access to primary education,” said Remulla, quoting the UNDP report.

He said other factors for low participation in primary schools particularly in the provinces include much higher malnutrition rates and incidence of child labor.

Remula said the UNDP report indicated that 7 out of 10 working children (ages 5-17) are in rural areas.

“Extreme hunger and poverty being experienced by children in rural areas have affected the high incidence of drop outs in many poor provinces,” said the NP official. Charlie V. Manalo

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