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What ‘No
More Mrs. Nice Guy?’
Mrs. Arroyo was Never 'Nice' in the First Place
By
Teodoro A. Casiño
Secretary General, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
MRS. GLORIA
Macapagal-Arroyo’s spin doctors are obviously having a hard
time—in local parlance, nagkakayod ng puwet ng kawali—to
package and repackage a snooty and insensitive President who now
wants to project a tough girl image while fawning over such monsters
as US Secretary of State Colin Powell, US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone
and the monopoly capitalists that they represent.
This penchant
for PR gimmickry again betrays Macapagal’s having a moist eye
at the 2004 elections. In the middle of the economic and political
crisis, all she thinks is how to look good before the electorate.
Now she’s all over the front pages and the TV screens posing
with criminals and their handlers in the PNP and AFP. We will not
be surprised if she calls herself the “savior of the Filipino
people” in line with the Marcosian strong republic she espouses.
We’re told
the days of “Mrs. Nice Guy” are over. But when was Macapagal
ever nice, especially to the basic masses and other oppressed and
marginalized sectors? Look at how she has treated the public, including
erstwhile allies in the oust-Estrada movement:
1. She trashed
the 20-point People’s Agenda presented in a dialogue with various
people’s organizations at the time when she was still Vice
President;
2. She called Rep. Crispin Beltran a communist after he suggested
the removal, by executive order, of the onerous Purchased Power
Adjustment (PPA);
3. She accused Balikatan critics of being Abu Sayyaf lovers, communists
and cohorts of murderers;
4. She called Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA) secretary-general
Boy Saycon a “termite;”
5. She approved a Department of Justice memorandum legalizing warrantless
arrests and illegal detention against thousands of Basilan residents
suspected of being Abu Sayyaf members;
6. She forced Vice President Teofisto Guingona to resign as foreign
affairs secretary;
7. She scrapped the PNP’s “maximum tolerance” policy
on rallies;
8. She presides over the continuing series of murders of Bayan and
Bayan Muna leaders, now totalling 39, with 20 occurring in Mindoro
Oriental alone.
On the other
hand, look at how pleasant and amiabile she is to the following
characters:
1. Messrs. Powell
and Ricciardone, US Admiral Fargo and Gen. Wurster and the US troops
involved in the Balikatan exercises;
2. Danding Cojuangco with regard to the coco levy and the Isabela
cassava project;
3. Lucio Tan and other Estrada cronies who were not charged along
with the ousted president;
4. The Employees Confederation of the Philippines whom she gifted
with her strong objections to any wage hike for workers.
5. The American Chamber of Commerce and foreign partners of independent
power producers whom she assured of respect for the “sanctity
of contracts” while their anomalies contracts are being investigated.
In other words,
what we are seeing is an uglier and meaner President of the Republic.
She is transforming from America’s cute little puppy to America’s
pit bull.
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