Gloria Panagutin Movement
The seeming constitutional crisis brewing in the Philippines today hardly ricochets on an exclusive legal question. It is more correctly a political matter that refers to the process, clash or struggle among various factions or forces in society for control of political power.
Those forces today in the Philippines are offshoots of the contracdiction between the factions of the ruling elite represented by PNoy and on the other hand, that of Gloria which has been edged out from the center of political gravity.
We may also include among the forces vying for control of the national polity, at least by asserting their voice, as the masses which have borne the brunt of state ruthlessness during the inglorious reign of Gloria and now want justice served on her.
That’s how events are unfolding today: the disgraced former president, bogus president to be more precise, trying to abscond from her unforgiveable sins against the people by mobilizing her forces that dominate the highest court of the land so to pave the way for her graceful exit to Asylum Land.
Her crimes include extrajudicial killings that claimed 1,000 plus lives and enforced disappearances, mostly of critics and political activists, when she relinquished power to her successor Pnoy in July 1, 2010.
Her crimes involved electoral fraud, among others, that catapulted her to power and frustrated the real victor, the late Fernando Poe, Jr., by the grace not of the electorate but of Garci and of the guns and goons of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao.
That does not include yet monumental counts of plunder and corruption executed by mostly by the oversized and overweight genius at her side named Mike.The haste with which the bogus president breezed through with her petition to obtain a TRO from the highest court of the land bespeaks of that: politics, as her eight appointees in the highest court of the land crudely repaid their gratitude by granting the TRO that nearly deprived the people their right to vindicate themselves and bring the criminal and her gang to justice.
Gloria filed the petition questioning the validity and constitutionality of DOJ department order 41 that justified “hold departure order” issued by her DOJ secretary, Raul Gonzalez, Sr. She questioned the constitutionality of her own creation and invoked her life being threatened by an ailment that could only be treated overseas but which later turned out to be another big lie as the infection in her spinal cord was in the process of healing after treatment in local facilities and by Filipino medical specialists.
She was again lying through her teeth and the highest court of the land, eight or the majority of them who were all Gloria appointees at least, believed her.We can only cry enlightenment for those honorable eight magistrates but I would rather pray courage to those who formed the Gloria Panagutin Movement (Hold Gloria Accountable Movement) which as the term suggests, calls on people to thwart schemes to let her go off the hook with or without the help from the judiciary.
The GPM was formed as an offshoot to disturbing events that nearly let Gloria slip out of the country by virtue of the TRO. It was convened by Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Pagbabago! co-chair, and also co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines for Women (AMRSP-W), veteran actress and writer Bibeth Orteza, whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, Atty. Edre Olalia of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), Bayan chair Dr. Carol P. Araullo, Mrs. Edith Burgos and Pagbabago! convenor Fr. Joe Dizon. Mrs. Burgos is the mother of Jonas Burgos an agriculturist working with farmers, who was disappeared, with the Army is principal suspect.
GPM’s aim is to thwart the Arroyo camp’s maneuvers and to push the Aquino administration to file more cases against the former president.
Sister Mananzan of the Benedictine Order asked the Supreme Court not to allow Arroyo to leave the country. “If she went out of the country, it is certain she would not come back. She must be held accountable for her sins,” Mananzan said in her speech during a rally in front of the Supreme Court, November 22.
Bayan’s Araullo said the Arroyo camp would always go to the Supreme Court for questions on legality. She said Arroyo’s appointees would always decide on her favor. Twelve of the 15 justices were appointed by Arroyo.
Comments
Post a Comment