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With their slogans and chants still to be heard,
organizers of a rally set for today are already admitting that
removing President Gloria Arroyo will not solve corruption, which
has hounded the government for decades.
National Security Adviser
Norberto Gonzales, meanwhile, told The Manila Times that they are
taking “seriously” the clamor for President Arroyo to resign.
Alleged graft in the government
of Mrs. Arroyo is the theme of the rally that will take place a few
days after Senate hearings on alleged kickbacks that riddled the
scrapped $330-million national broadband project. It will also come
amid perceptions of wheeling and dealing in the government.
Ibon Databank, which describes
itself as an alternative research group, recently conducted a
nationwide survey that said some 75 percent of 1,503 respondents
expressed awareness of resign calls on Mrs. Arroyo from civil
society. Some 77.4 percent of the aware (or almost four in five)
said they agree with these calls for the President to step down.
The survey was made from January
7 to 14, 2008. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Expressing apparent awareness of
today’s demonstration planned by the opposition and militants in
Makati City, US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney on
Thursday said any protest should be put in the “framework of the
Constitution and the rule of law.”
She, however, added that the
“right to public protest to express views and opinions is
fundamental to all of us.”
Kenney said it is “important
for government and for the private sectors to see that.”
Authorities estimated that at
least 3,000 demonstrators will show up. But Fr. Jose Dizon of the
Catholic Church’s Solidarity Philippines, which applied for the
rally permit, said “more or less 5,000 patriotic Christians and
concerned citizens of the land” will participate.
United Opposition spokesman Adel
Tamano said they expect “a few thousands.”
The group and militant
organizations also on Thursday appealed to Philippine National
Police chief Avelino Razon Jr., after their meeting late Wednesday
night, to respect the people’s right to peaceful assembly.
The military has raised a red
alert over Metro Manila ahead of the antigovernment rally today.
Tamano said the national police
should not threaten the people intending to join the rally by
deploying “exaggerated” checkpoints to screen participants and
declaring the red alert.
He added that the rally
organizers are apprehensive that the national police and the
military will block the movement of the people in the guise of
security threats to prevent them from joining up.
In the past, Tamano said,
authorities would set up checkpoints along major roads, especially
the North Luzon and South Luzon expressways, to stop protesters from
reaching Metro Manila.
“If they stop people, that’s
a violation of the Constitution, and we will not hesitate to go to
the Supreme Court to challenge them,” he added.
“No traditional politicians
will be seated on stage because we want common people to be in the
limelight. We want to hear doctors, students, teachers and other
common taxpayers to share their sentiments on this corruption-laden
government,” Tamano said of the rally program.
The government has called for
calm amid the turmoil and challenged Mrs. Arroyo’s critics to file
charges in court over the allegations of graft.
Rally organizer Dizon said
Friday’s assembly is “just the beginning” of a series of
protests by civil society groups against the Arroyo administration.
United Opposition President and
Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said he has granted the permit
allowing the organizers to hold the rally from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at
the Ninoy Aquino monument on Ayala and Paseo de Roxas avenues.
The city government banned
burning of effigies and exploding of firecrackers, as the rally site
is at the heart of the city’s central business district.
Support for GMA
In Legazpi City, Albay, the
League of Provinces of the Philippines recently read a manifesto in
the presence of Mrs. Arroyo reiterating their support for her.
Gov. Loreto Leo Ocampos of
Misamis Occidental, also national president of the league, read the
manifesto calling on members of the political opposition to allow
the President finish her term and instead wait for the next
presidential elections to present their own agenda and programs to
the people. Mrs. Arroyo’s term ends in 2010, when elections for
the next President will also take place.
At least 49 of the 80 governors
across the country expressed their strong support for the President,
among them all six governors in the Bicol Region.
--James Konstantin Galvez, William B. Depasupil and Rhaydz Barcia
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