Friday, October 26, 2007

A TIME FOR MOURNING

Today will be marked as a miserable day in our nation’s history. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s pardon of former president Joseph Estrada, granted without need of a public admission of guilt, is a mockery of justice and an insult to all Filipinos. It is a reflection of the culture of transactional politics that has characterized GMA’s regime, which has brought our country to a state of moral bankruptcy.

We ask every citizen to join us in mourning the death of justice in our country. Tie black ribbons to your vehicles and wear black every Friday starting today. Let us paint this nation’s heart black, for that is its color at its core. Those in government who often claim respect for the rule of law and who are sworn to uphold it are the very ones who pervert it.

Let us also stop according our government officials – the President, Vice-President, Cabinet Secretaries, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and Mayors allied with GMA, the honor they do not deserve. Ginagago na tayo. The least we can do is to STOP calling them “honorable”, refuse to shake their hands, or stand up or clap for them at their public appearances.

Each one of us should ask our Governor, Mayor, and Congressman of whatever party affiliation, “Pumunta ka ba sa Malacanang?” and “Nakatanggap ka ba?” With the ease by which they offend our sensibilities and basic decency, they deserve no less than our ostracism.

To our OFWs who have kept our economy afloat with your sacrifice and hard-earned remittances, we ask that you express your outrage through emails that you are so good at sending out around the world. Please send messages of indignation to Philippine embassies and consulates in your host countries. Work to use your influence over your families to boot out corrupt officials in 2010. Help us express global outrage at the impunity with which an illegitimate president rules.

Sadly, the reason we are in this state of moral bankruptcy today is because we have been indirect accomplices in the past through our silence.

It is time to break our silence. Tama Na. Sobra Na. Hindi na kami magpapagago!

12 comments:

the bystander said...

hi helga. i will reserve my comments later. i'm still in a state of shock as to how fast the events have happened this week.

just dropping by to inform you that i've transferred to a new blogsite at http://sikwati.wordpress.com

-the bystander

Leah Navarro said...

Hi Bystander! Wow, it's been a while, and that's been my fault, mainly. Thanks for the info, will update now. Don't apologize, you'll get up to speed real quick. :->

jc smith said...

Hi Helga,

Gotta Ribbon in my site: I also have small one in my sidebar. Please feel free to download and distribute it to all the other blogs. --> Black Ribbon

Keep the fire burning!

golda said...

i too mourn for this.this is the disease called gloria macapagal arroyo.

the same woman who will try to get the jpepa approved, no matter what.

junkjpepa blogspot com

Unknown said...

In the 27 Oct issue of The Daily Tribune, there is an interesting comment made by Senator Gordon in the article, “Senate allies score Gloria on pardon (by Angie M. Rosales). It’s the best comment I have read so far. Here’s an excerpt:

“..administration senator, Richard Gordon, also expressed disgust at Mrs. Arroyo and hinted that the move was made on account of her political survival.

“I am revolted by the whole scenario…I’m not asking for punishment (for Estrada) because I don’t like him. I am revolted because the law has been mediocretized or trivialized…in the end, of course, what will happen is that we will become the laughingstock of the world,” he said.

Gordon noted the matter of timing, as the Palace’ announcement was seen by some observers as a diversionary tactic to divert public attention from the ZTE National Broadband Network project probe in the Senate where Mrs. Arroyo was implicated by Speaker’s son, Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, doesn’t really matter.

“For me, she committed a wrong, Period. And it will be an even worse wrong because it can be said that the timing was coincidental. But she should not shortchange the people through this pardon as they will be left holding the empty bag,” he said.

“President Arroyo disgraced her position. She muffed her chance to show that her legacy is one of justice. Estrada also muffed his chance by going back on his word that he would not accept a pardon from Mrs. Arroyo,” Gordon said.

Estrada has always said that he would accept a pardon from Mrs. Arroyo only if it is unconditional and absolute, which was what was granted yesterday.

To Mrs. Arroyo, Gordon had this to say: “You took an oath to uphold the law. Sure, pardon is your power. Use your power to benefit the people. You do not use your power to make yourself survive.

“Estrada was given a big gift by the Filipino people—the trust of the nation. He betrayed that trust which is why he was charged and punished. This case was fought for six years. Is this the way to repay the Filipino people,” Gordon said. “She preferred to survive politically, rather be right, rather than be just.It’s not even a question of mercy. It’s a question of survival for her. It is a transactional leadership as its purest form,” said Gordon.”

[www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20071027hed2.html]

totoobakau? said...

What a bunch of hypocrites this anti-ERAP "civil society" is! These same anti-ERAP forces have the gall to speak of the Rule of Law and the Constitution when it was they who had dumped the Rule of Law and Constitution when they mounted a coup d 'etat against then sitting President Joseph Estrada.

They didn't bother about the rules, nor respected the empeachment process, nor the Rule of Law, embracing instead mob rule of force.

And yet now, with the absolute pardon granted to Estrada, they scream that pardon should not have been granted; that this was too hasty; that he must admit his guilt, that he must make an act of restitution and spend more time to rot in jail before any pardon is to be considered.

Yet what about their own sin committed against the Filipino people when they, comprising the elite, broke the highest law in the land by taking the law and the Consitution into their own hands.

These sanctimonious hypocrites certainly knew, when they ousted Estrada and moved to charge him with plunder that he would not get justice from the courts, given the fact, that the highest court in the land, with all its justices led by then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., participated in the coup, swearing Gloria in, despite there not being vacancy in the presidency.

This was why they had to invent the "constructive resignation" doctrine against Estrada, as their justification of their unconstitutional act.

Then came the creation of a special court to exclusively try Estrada and it was evident that the court existed to convict him.

Even when the prosecution failed to prove charges, and the court records will bear this out, Estrada was convicted anyway.

And now, they continue to protest the pardon of Estrada?

For four years running, even as the elite knew about the cheating, lying and stealing ways of Gloria Arroyo, they never denounced her. It is fact that in 2004, they already knew that massive cheating was ongoing and yet they - including the bishops - supported that electoral cheating, justifying this as a better way to ensure that Fernando Poe Jr., also a movie actor, would not sit in Malacanang.

Yet they dare to project themselves as righteous and followers of the Rule Of Law, these sanctimonous shit?

You have people such as Luis Chavit Singson, a demonstrable corrupt provincial governor who has stolen from the provincial coffers and who has not even been made to account for his many crimes - including plunder charges filed at the Sandiganbayan, which charges are outside of the realm of the plunder charges against Estrada, demanding an admission of guilt and restitution, along with a longer stay in jail when he has gotten away scot free using perjured testimony.

And you have people like Leonard De Vera, who was upbraided by the US court and forbidden to practice Law for having kept for himself, money that was owned by his client, and also suspended by the Philippine Supreme Court from practicing Law, having the nerve to protest a pardon for Estrada.

And then there is that sanctimonious Black and White Movement also protesting the pardon of Estrada, yet there the BnW people wew, pushing their candidate's inclusion in the ERAP senatorial ticket. They call for a show of outrage, as though they have the masses to support their call. They don't even have supporters to call on.

HYPOCRITES ALL THEY ARE!

And the left? They support a convicted Joma Sison, who is alleged to have committed many murders, and cry for him not to be jailed. They who were amnestied and yet oppose the Estrada pardon, whom they know they wronged in 2000, call for justice?

As former President Fidel Ramos, who made his opposition to the pardon public, he also had the gumption to demand and admission of guilt and for him not to make any conditions, even saying the grant of pardon is too hasty.

Ramos is full of manure. He certainly still has to pay for his many sins against the Filipino people. Think of the many Sovereign guarantees he signed to overpriced power generators that weren't even used; the kickbacks and the many scams he engaged in during his term in Malacanang. He should be made to account for all his crimes, not to mention the crime against the Consitution when he and Gloria mounted the coup they tried to pass off as democracy.

Did not Ramos give the coup plotters then in 1986, just push ups as a punishment? Did he not insist on their amnesty? And now he opposes pardon for Estrada and all because he fears an Estrada comeback?

THEY ARE ALL HYPOCRITES!

erw_sor said...

i kept my mouth shut since gma took over from erap, thinking there's no qualified leader to lead our country, but i finally realized she's leading us to nowhere. i would support the petition to call for a snap elections. let us choose a leader who has no inclination to either gma or erap. sayang wala na si roco. but somebody to replace her will do.

EQ said...

I always had an uneasy feeling siding with the political opposition because of Erap being its”de facto leader”.I can now forget all about Erap being part of the real opposition.Thank God!

Leah Navarro said...

We have plans to consult the public in general about their feelings in regard to recent events in the very near future. Many are still reeling, but the flood of texts and email also show that many of us are more willing to vent. Hope you all think about joining us just to chat. Will post details about this and other actions soon.

EQ said...

The Nobel Peace Prize 2008

We respectfully propose to The Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008, in alphabetical order, to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Joseph “Erap” Ejercito Estrada and Ronaldo Puno for their efforts to create peace and national reconciliation in the Republic of the Philippines.The three nominees have worked hard to establish a political democratic atmosphere and firm respect for majesty of the Law (following the dictum of "justice delayed is justice denied")

For the past decade, the conflict the “Pro Erap” forces (the “masa” ) and the “Pro Gloria” (the ruling elite), has been among the most irreconcilable and menacing in Philippine politics. The parties have caused each other great suffering.

By negotiating the The Presidential Pardon For Erap , and subsequently following it up with the quick pardon after six (6) weeks from the conviction of Erap by the Sandigan Bayan, Arroyo,Estrada and Puno have made substantial contributions to a historic process through which peace and cooperation can replace a bitter political feud and possibly a dangerous civil war and hate among Filipinos.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize could be awarded to the person who, in the preceding year, "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations".

The proposed award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to Arroyo, Puno and Estrada is intended to honor a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Philippines.

It is our hope that the Committee will give the award to these great Filipinos to serve as an encouragement to all the Filipinos of different political persuasions who are working to establish lasting peace in this important country in the strategic ASEAN region.

The Profiles of the Proposed Nobel Peace Prize Awards for 2008

1) President Gloria Arroyo: She has declared the Philippines as the most democratic country in our region. “We have no tolerance for human rights violations at home or abroad.” GMA Speech in the UN General Assembly;Sept.28,2007

2)Ex- President Joseph Estrada:He served more than six years in detention — six years and six months to be exact. First in an air-conditioned suite at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, and then at his own well-appointed rest house in Tanay town, outside Manila .

3)Secretary Ronaldo Puno :The Peacemaker between President Gloria Arroyo and President Joseph Estrada. He is arguably one of the most successful campaign managers in Philippine politics. He supported the presidential bids of eventual winners Ferdinand Marcos,Fidel Ramos,Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

JOKE only.Trick or Treat...

Leah Navarro said...

Happy Halloween, Equalizer! Very clever. Galing.

EQ said...

For Jonas and others…

Los “desparecidos”
Did we notice?
Did we care?.
Reports of torture,
Reports of graves
in the mountains,
Bodies dumped at sea
Did we notice?
That happened
in those places,
those other places
where people looked different,
ate strange spicy foods,
had military dictators
or Communists .
They didn’t count.
We didn't count them
Not us. The terror has come home.
Yes at home.Right here.
Will it make us better or worse?