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STATEMENT
Dangerous Trends in the Macapagal Administration
From the AKBAYAN
Citizens' Action Party Web site
 July
22, 2002
PRESIDENT GLORIA
Macapagal-Arroyo seems to have forgotten that she was installed
in office by accident; being the vice president, she was merely
the legal successor to Erap. The clamor in People Power 2 remains
the same: a clamor for political renewal and good, decent governance.
Barely two years into her presidency, however, President Macapagal
has shown that the promises of People Power 2 mean nothing to her.
Three significant
trends mark her administration. First, excessive politicking and
accommodation towards her re-election in 2004. Not only has she
turned her back on “civil society”, she has embraced Estrada's
backers such as Blas Ople, Ronnie Puno and Danding Cojuangco. Crucial
policy decisions and programs (such as the anti- poverty program,
the coco levy issue, and even the Mindanao peace talks) are being
undermined by dubious political “advisers” and operators
who have no accountability and simply have no right to meddle in
government: Dante Ang, Norberto Gonzales and the President's husband,
Mike Arroyo. Ex-president Ramos still exerts major influence, such
as in the PPA scandal which the Macapagal government refuses to
investigate any further for fear of implicating the former president.
In the meantime, the Lopezes and the Ayalas are getting away with
their demands in the privatized water sector with the approval of
the government. The Macapagal government is clearly bent on placating
and wooing major clans and allies at the expense of serious governance
and reforms.
The second trait
of this administration is its dogged adherence to neo-liberal economic
philosophy whose consequences have proven to be unfavorable to the
majority poor. The President prides herself in being an economist
but she is in the traditional mold, ignoring other perspectives
and innovative approaches to this country's massive poverty problem.
Much evidence in developing countries has shown that rapid and haphazard
liberalization, privatization, and integration into the global economy
worsens poverty and does not result in sustained economic development.
And yet the Macapagal government sticks to this dogma even as majority
of its constituents suffer from the imprudent implementation of
an already skewed economic policy.
The current
regime perpetuates the mistakes of its successors in the:
1) ill-conceived
and badly implemented privatization policy for public utilities
that have resulted in higher prices and mediocre service
2) abrupt removal
of tariffs and continued importation of agricultural products that
have wiped out domestic producers and
3) removing
labor employment security and protection in order to attract foreign
investors.
In the meantime,
programmatic measures for social equity languish among the government's
other priorities: agrarian reform, the anti-government program,
for instance.
The third hallmark
of this dispensation is its disregard for national sovereignty and
its blind connivance with the American geo-political agenda. The
initial excuse for the Balikatan exercises was the elimination of
the Abu Sayyaf, which to this date shows no sign of being accomplished.
Lately, the Macapagal government has run out of excuses to bend
over backwards for the Americans since it has become clear that
Philippine national interest (i.e. peace and development in Mindanao)
and American military domination over the Asia Pacific obviously
do not intersect. The initial need for a “joint military training
exercise” has thus escalated into an urgent need for “storage
facilities” to be secured under the Mutual Logistics Support
Agreement (MLSA) reportedly to be signed in August. The Macapagal
government is poised to throw self- respect out the window (notice
US Ambassador Riccardone's sermon on corruption), compromise our
territorial and political integrity as a nation and to overturn
the gains of decades-long struggle against American intervention.
These trends
define a dangerous direction for the Macapagal government. If political
opportunism, worsening poverty and American intervention dominate
our national life during the next months, then the next two years
are surely going to be very problematic. And if these continue with
Macapagal's re-election up to 2010, the situation will be infinitely
worse; the possibility for political and economic reforms we fought
for in People Power 2 grows dimmer with every Estrada minion back
in public office, with each dubious political operator making policy
decisions, with Americans running national affairs and with each
poor Filipino who grows poorer.
If “civil
society” organizations such as AKBAYAN take the President to
task for her decisions, it is not because we feel she owes us for
putting her in power
What we demand
is that she keep faith with the spirit of People Power 2. What we
demand is what is rightly our due: a democratic, responsive and
accountable government. We will take every opportunity to remind
her that she owes it to us, citizens of this republic, to govern,
govern effectively and govern now. If she waits until 2004 to do
that, it might be too late.
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