The signatories, which include two former Senate Presidents, former senators and cabinet secretaries, activist religious leaders, and the NBN-ZTE bribery scandal whistle-blower, urge the American leader to be well "mindfulof Ms Arroyo's legacy of corruption, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, bribery, election cheating, among others." The meat of the letter implores Obama "to inspire hope and be an instrument of change for the common good of the long suffering Filipino people."
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P.S.
US President Obama, this humble brown column asks you not to boost RP "President" Arroyo's "wrong side of history" position by letting your office be used to sanitize and legitimize her vile and mandate-less regime. Let me remind you of your Inaugural Address here at:
Excerpts:...To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it....
May I also kindly ask you to read an interesting account of the history of your relations with Arroyo here:
Arroyo had gone on an aggressive seeking of the opportunity to meet up and try forging close relations with (translation 2: stalking) Obama as early as June 2008 when he was yet the presumed Democratic presidential nominee--apparently to ensure the political support of Bush's successor to her precarious presidency.
Her first attempt came via an expensive, 10-day, non-state visit to the US in the midst of the American presidential electoral process, but which failed to obtain even a glimpse of his charismatic presence....
But beware, half of the letter's signatories were responsible for installing the bogus "President" Arroyo. Allow me:
The Edsa II "People Power" coup d e'tat was hatched through the coalesced leadership of elements of political opportunists galvanizing under then Vice-President Arroyo, rebel military influenced by ex-President Fidel Ramos, Catholic bishops led by Jaime Cardinal Sin, and Philippine leftists such as former communist rebel Satur Ocampo. Undoubtedly, there were other groups behind the unconstitutional "fiesta" mob rule of the 2001 Edsa. There were the influential business elites, of course, and as well, the Protestant Jesus is Lord Movement by Bro. Eddie Villanueva. These groups could be said to be the plotters, each of which falls into the category of either being devious, vengeful, or well-meaning but misguided. Estrada was, after all, far from perfect. It was easy for those with poor democratic values to seek the Machiavellian way out of a President who acted like, and preferred to identify himself with the masses, perhaps much too much.
Then again, Arroyo fraudulently sought her own "mandate." Kindly read all about it here:
On June 24, 2004, a stealth operation of grave national impact was conducted by the Congress of the Philippines. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the controversial sitting President who took power after the popularly elected Joseph Estrada was deposed in the undemocratic EDSA II conspiracy in January 2001, was proclaimed as the victor of the 2004 May 11 elections in a manner that defied the spirit of electoral victory and the essence of a "proclamation." At around 3:30 am--yes, Virginia, at such a still-dusky morning hour when most Filipinos are generally still tucked in their beds--Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Jose de Venecia raised the hands of Arroyo and proclaimed her "President-elect."
What explains the surreptitious proclamation that ensured the people who were supposed to have given the petite Arroyo the mandate of electoral victory (over "1 M" lead over opposition bet Fernando Poe Jr.) would not be able to share in a supposedly glorious moment is the conspiratorial story of cheating and cover-up sealed at the very halls of the Philippine Congress.
Arroyo's 2009 SONA are full of lies, as usual, actually. Historically, the majority of the Filipinos have taken her SONAs with considerable skepticism, as illustrated here:
Only 14 out of every 100 Filipinos believe there will be any truth in the scheduled July 28, 2008 SONA, compared to the 86% percent who either disbelieve or remain undecided... An earlier Pulse Asia survey study held in October 2007 has shown that Filipinos regard Gloria Arroyo as the Most Corrupt President in Philippine History, even beating former dictator Ferdinand Marcos for the ignominious title. Ironically, Joseph Estrada, her predecessor whom she deposed in the 2001 Edsa revolt, is ranked number two as the Least Corrupt President, next to Corazon Aquino, during the post-Martial Law era.
The economic figures she presented in what should be her last SONA are as apparently doctored as the 2004 Congress' tally of her supposedly winning votes vs. Fernando Poe Jr. Your American excellency, kindly take note of the point-by-point exploration of her fantasy "Arroyonomics:"
Former President Joseph Estrada, reacting point by point to the achievements claimed by President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address (Sona), yesterday said the speech was a work of fiction, pointing out that this is due to "Arroyonomics" which he described as a "kind of economics out of touch with reality and real facts."
He also charged the Arroyo administration with implementing anti-poor policies in education, health, housing, agrarian reform and other areas over the past eight years.
Mr. Obama, know what the Filipino people are truly experiencing under their incumbent "President" based on nationwide surveys and not government figures of dubious authenticity. I implore you and your office to check these out:
The First Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey, fielded over February 20-23, 2009, found adult unemployment rising to record-high 34.2%, or an estimated 14 million, from 27.9% or estimated 11 million from the previous quarter... Unemployment has been over 20% since 2005.
Philippine Hunger Rises to Near-Record Level: 1 out of 5 Families Affected
The Second Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey, fielded over June 19-22, 2009, found the proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months rising to 20.3% or an estimated 3.7 million families, from 15.5% or an estimated 2.9 million families in the previous quarter.
The new Hunger figure is just 3 points lower than the record-high 23.7% (or estimated 4.3 million families) in December 2008, and is 8 points above the ten-year average of 12.8% [Chart 1, Table 1]... Hunger has consistently been in double-digits for five years, since June 2004.
Great President Obama, you've successfully campaigned on a mantra of "Change." Eight thousand six hundred miles away, the present-day people of the Southeast Asian country that your early predecessor, the 25th US President William McKinley, decided to colonize--the poor Philippines--earnestly count on you to keep your word in their struggle against a most conspiratorial, most power grabbing, most fraudulent, and most repudiated "leader" in the islands' history. Can Filipinos count on you?
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Postscript
After playing hard-to-get for several months, Obama ultimately invited, and met with, his Filipino stalker of rather midget proportions. The scene reminds this column of two historical entities circa turn-of-the-past-century: two groups of traitors during the Philippine American War--a group of "Macabebes", traitors to the Filipino side; and deserter black American soldiers, traitors to the American side. The "Macabebes" were some local mercenaries from the Philippine province of Pampanga--where Arroyo partly hails--who were paid by the US forces tracking down the revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo; on the other, the 29 black American deserters of the first US imperialistic war of conquest deplored their ironic role in "an unjust racial war," leading them to abandon their American posts.
Arroyo can be likened to one of the Macabebes who betrayed Aguinaldo, while Obama, being one dark-skinned biracial, looks like Private David Fagen of the 24th Infantry's Company I who even became a captain on the side of the Filipino revolutionaries. Of course, Obama is no traitor to the American side. During the two presidents' meeting, the 44th US President actually behaved more like a white-skinned, trimmed-down McKinley as he asked his counterpart to serve as the "chief coordinator in Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)" for the US! The 14th RP "President" gleefully accepted that role of servitude but surely not without a payment of sorts, just like the Macabebes of old.________
References:
Dizon, Lino. Macabebes 1571-1901: More than a footnote in history. http://www.geocities.com/kapampanganx/s4_1.html
Dumindin, Arnaldo. Philippine-American War, 1899-1902. http://www.freewebs.com/philippineamericanwar/thewarin19001901.htm
Ellen Tordesillas. http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/letter-to-pres-obama-72909.pdf
Gloria propaganda gone wrong. 4 August 2009. http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20090804com1.html
Pelorina, Renato. "Ang Mga Macabebe sa Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano (1899-1902)." Philippine Social Sciences Review, 58-59.1-2 (Jan 2006-Dec 2007). Abstract. http://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/pssr/article/view/1270
San Juan, E. African American Soldiers in the Philippine Revolution. http://philcsc.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/african-american-soldiers-in-the-philippine-revolution/
Photo Credits:
Social Weather Stations. http://www.sws.org.ph
Pulse Asia. http://pulseasia.com.ph/
http://cm1.theinsider.com/
AllPosters.com
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/letter-to-pres-obama-72909.pdf
Philippine Commentary. http://philippinecommentary.blogspot.com/2009/07/gloria-upstaged-by-beer-summit.html
