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Melissa ruined her own credibility
This is a reaction to Mr. Dan
Mariano’s column on August 7 about ‘Human rights’ saying that
the two partylist congressmen are taking up cudgels for government
security forces accused of illegally detaining and torturing a
Filipino-American activist. They are trying to discredit Melissa
Roxas, claiming she is a New People’s Army (NPA) member. They have
presented what they call photographic evidence of her membership in
the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) —
without identifying the source of the pictures.
Of course Mr. Mariano the two
Representatives will not identify the people behind the video and
the photos to protect thier identity. Hello! That subject is a
matter of life and death, maybe that’s why the two representatives
want to prove the truth and at the same time to protect the identity
of their sources to prevent putting their lives at risk.
At first I felt sorry for what
had happened to Melissa Roxas. She got my sympathy as a woman myself
but when the video swelled in different website I personally watched
it in my curiosity. The youtube had been the way for me to view it.
I saw Roxas and her exposure trip to NPA rebels educating urban
activists about the crimson revolution. I am 101percent convinced
that she is the one in the video holding an M-16 gun. How come she
knows how to hold a high powered gun? And to think that she is a
Filipino-American who finished two college courses in the US, she
should had a wealthy type of living. Then how could she have managed
to mingle with disgusting people in the mountain? For me that’s
something different from the usual. Melissa’s mind has been
orchestrated to point the military as her abductors and torturers.
Who will make an effort now to believe in her statement and her
affidavit? She ruined her own credibility and her lawyer too by
appealing not to release the video anymore. For what? To plea that
the woman in the video is his client? Funny isn’t it? The fish is
caught with its own mouth.
Diana Ferrer
Tagbilaran Bohol
d_ferrer01@yahoo.com
Back to reality
Before former President Corazon
Aquino succumbed to cancer, the big story was President Gloria
Arroyo’s long-desired meeting with US President Barack Obama. That
political triumph was also a diplomatic one, for as Ms. Arroyo
herself and her various spokesmen have taken turns pointing out, she
was the first leader from Southeast Asia to call on Obama. But the
distinction did not come originally from Malacañang, it came from
the White House.
In other words, Malacañang
went out of its way to emphasize its diplomatic coup, by using the
Obama administration’s own talking points.
I do not know whether President
Arroyo considers the meeting (by all accounts a truly cordial one)
to be the capstone of her diplomatic record. I supported her
decision to remove Filipino troops out of harm’s way in Iraq in
2004, earlier than scheduled; her continuing expression of support,
despite criticism at home for alleged hypocrisy, for the cause of
human rights in Burma (Myanmar).
Ever the astute tactician,
President Arroyo may be tempted to let the initial, cozy images from
her meeting with Obama stand in for the substance of that meeting,
now that nobody is talking about the White House visit.
She could sell the idea that the
meeting amounted to a political benediction, not only of her
achievements in office, but of her desire to stay in office.
Andrew Prieditis
432 San Andres corner
Roxas Boulevard, Malate, Manila
Tel. No. 834-4345
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