Gloria Arroyo « Victor Villanueva

Posts tagged with Gloria Arroyo

January 16, 2012

The dishrag calling the dustcloth dirty*

A few days ago, a paper written by ex-President Gloria Arroyo entitled “It’s the economy, student!” was released to the public. In the piece, the ex-President went on great length to champion her economic programs on one hand and to and bash President Aquino for failing to ‘sustain’ the gains she boasts to have accomplished on the other.

What really is the fundamental difference between economic policies of the two? Nothing. President Aquino merely continues the same economic policies of President Arroyo.

Both Presidents’ economic programs adhere to the same dogma of neoliberal globalization. It’s the economy, all right–the economy of big businessmen, foreign investors and their local counterparts. Whether or not ordinary Filipinos benefit from such economic growth is merely incidental. They have a phrase for it–”trickle down” effect. Numbers that proclaim economic growth are rendered meaningless by the fact that poverty has continued to worsen over the decade, so much that the government had to re-define and lower the poverty threshold. The vision of economic prosperity and survival is entirely dependent on foreign investors and all the economic programs of President Aquino and his predecessors are aligned with the agenda of these monopoly capitalists and their local counterparts.

Both Presidents have pushed for the further privatization of public utilities by selling contracts to roads and other public services to private profiteers. Both administrations have strengthened the deregulation of industries imbued with public interest and rejected clamors to repeal the laws that allow such deregulation, from the oil industry (Oil Deregulation Law) to power generation and distribution (EPIRA) to education (Education Act of 1982), which have resulted to public services that are increasingly out of reach to ordinary Filipinos and are increasingly profitable to private corporations.

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January 5, 2012

Taking the side of neither bully in the schoolyard *

[This is a statement I wrote for the Civil Law Student Council of UST with regard to the political noise of the Chief Justice's impeachment trial]

Our involvement with the issue of the Chief Justice’s impeachment must not degenerate into taking sides from among the warring political factions of the government, for we must remember that what truly matters is the people’s welfare. Beyond all the cacophony of this political circus, the truth remains that both contending ruling cliques have their own vested agenda. The Aquino and the Arroyo groups have taken advantage and exploited this feud in order to portray themselves as heroes and saints while neither of them genuinely address the basic pursuit of social justice in the country.

To take side with either bully of the schoolyard is not a choice, it is a false dichotomy.

On one hand, if we are truly for judicial integrity and independence, we should welcome the opportunity for the Chief Justice to defend himself against allegations of partiality in an impeachment trial. We should caution against those who portray the impeachment of the Chief Justice as an attack against the Judiciary as an institution and paint several personalities as martyrs. Impeachment per se is not a breach of judicial independence. Impeachment is a mechanism for Congress to fulfill its check and balance function as representatives of the people. It is not a mere surplusage in our Constitution. Our Supreme Court Justices, highly esteemed by some of us as they may be, are not infallible demigods who are immune from scrutiny and criticism, and they remain to be public officials who are accountable to the people.

We should also welcome the impeachment as a step in holding accountable the past administration of former President Arroyo, for it is undeniable that while the Chief Justice is in power, the integrity and impartiality of all Supreme Court decisions with regard the Chief Justice’s former principal, to whom he has served as chief of staff and legal counsel, will be put into question. Judging the pattern of decisions and opinions of the Chief Justice, indeed his impartiality is in doubt.

On the other hand, we should also caution our support for such pursuit of judicial integrity by refusing to throw all our weight behind the Aquino clique, for it is readily apparent that this is a machination to consolidate all branches of government at his disposal, after a consistent pattern of Supreme Court decisions that run against the present administration’s interests, the final straw being that of the decision regarding Hacienda Luisita. Removing an Arroyo-appointed Chief Justice opens the golden opportunity for President Aquino to install his own. In that regard, we should also remain vigilant in the common pursuit of a Supreme Court that is truly an independent entity capable of dispensing legal matters with fairness and justice.

At the end of the day, while we are being made to watch this political circus the prevailing fact remains, President Aquino has no clear program of action to resolve the root causes of massive poverty and injustice in the Philippines but a rehash the same old bankrupt economic framework and political policies of his predecessors, including former President Arroyo. All President Aquino has to show for, laudable as it may be, is a smokescreen of anti-corruption rhetoric. Such is merely a staged showdown between his administration and Arroyo’s which does not address the basic problems of the people. After all, in the final analysis, how different are the two cliques from each other?

* with reference to former President Arroyo’s infamous line in response to critics: “I’m tired of chasing the bullies around the schoolyard!”

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October 14, 2010

On amnesty and rebellions

Lt. Antonio Trillanes and Brig. General Danilo Lim addressing the media in their failed putsch against President Arroyo in 2007. (Photo not mine)

We had just taken our political law final exam last night, so I might as well write something about the amnesty granted by President Aquino to the Magdalo soliders who staged several putsches against the Arroyo administration the past years.

Amnesty is an exercise of political power. It is political in nature. It is usually granted as a blanket clemency on a certain class or group of people who committed political crimes, or crimes which are political in nature. It is inherent in any government to have the power to “forgive” political offenders and extinguish their crimes and their liabilities. It is distinguished from pardon which is usually granted to individuals for ordinary crimes and is based on the power to correct miscarriages of justice, especially to the poor and marginalized. Amnesty extinguishes the crime totally, as if the act committed was never a crime in the first place (without prejudice to civil liability for damages). Pardon, on the other hand, only extinguishes the penalty, and may be subject to conditions, but recognizes the act as a crime–which is why it is only granted to those who have been convicted by final judgment, as opposed to amnesty which can be granted to any alleged criminal during trial, as long as he confesses to the acts committed.

Here are two examples of past Presidents’ exercise of amnesty: In 1946, President Manuel Roxas granted amnesty to all post-war criminals who committed acts such as murder in furtherance of the guerilla resistance against the Japanese; in 1986, President Corazon Aquino granted amnesty to political prisoners of the Marcos regime after the latter’s overthrow. In both instances, we see the distinct political character of amnesties. They are meant to correct political injustices of previous eras.

Some people are expressing their disapproval of the amnesty grant to the Magdalo soldiers for condoning criminals and rewarding crimes. I think we have to make a distinction between condoning and rewarding ordinary crimes from extinguishing political offenses.

Amnesty does not reward criminals. The crimes rebels commit are usually against oppressive and corrupt regimes. Rebels are rebels because the prevailing government at the time says so. They are not ordinary criminals. Amnesty simply recognizes the very idea of rebellion and the inherent power of the people to rebel and resist oppression. The power to forgive political offenses must be inherent in any new government or administration to correct the political oppresion of any past dispensation.

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June 16, 2010

First day of school

More than two hundred youths from different universities and communities in Metro Manila marched yesterday, June 15, 2010, to the gates of Malacanang to protest the worsening crisis in education

Yesterday was the first day of classes for most schools, colleges and universities in the country. As millions flocked to their respective campuses, more than 8 million of our fellow Filipino youths and children will not even get to step inside a classroom. This marks one of the highest number of out-of-school youth in our nation’s modern history.

In Gloria Arroyo’s nine years in office, the nation has experienced budget cuts in education, tuition and other fee increases left and right and as mentioned, the highest out-of-school and drop-out rates in years.

Despite the constitutional guarantee that education is a right of each and every Filipino, going to school has increasingly been such a financial burden to millions of Filipino families, if they can get in a school at all. Even public elementary and high schools, with up to 61,343 in classroom shortage and 54,060 in teacher shortage, cannot accommodate all Filipino children, nor can they provide the kind and quality of education needed for national development. The Department of Education itself declared that there are as many as 5.6 million out-of-school children.

The students were able to squeeze past through the barbed wire barricades of Mendiola and march to Gate 7 of the Presidential Palace

The nation’s public universities, on the other hand, has been suffering budget cuts almost every year forcing them to extract tuition and other fees from their students and forcing them to sell resources which would otherwise have served their constituents. The Philippines actually has the lowest percentage of youths studying in state universities. In other countries, state universities and colleges accommodate majority of college-age youths. In the Philippines, we force them to either enroll in private institutions with steep tuition rates, or to not enter college at all.

While our parents’ wages have been stunted for decades, the government has allowed tuition rates in private schools and public universities to escalate. It has in fact almost doubled since Gloria Arroyo became President. In 2001, the national average cost per unit in colleges and universities was at P257.41. In 2010, it has almost doubled to P501.22. In Metro Manila where most of the country’s colleges and universities are located, it is worse. From P439.59 per unit in 2001 it has ballooned to P980.54 per unit in 2010. These don’t even take into account the long list miscellaneous fees being implemented by schools, which hide the real cost of education.

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December 10, 2009

Sowing the seeds of a nationwide declaration

The way the Arroyo administration is stretching the meaning of “rebellion” is utterly absurd. If this is allowed, we’re making possible a bizarre scenario where the Arroyo administration may connive with its many warlord allies across the country to stage any “massing of arms” in order to justify a nationwide declaration of martial law as they near the day they are booted out of office in the 2010 elections. A few days ago, the Defense Secretary came up with an odd press release revealing something we’ve known all along anyway–that there are private armies all over the country. Suddenly, the government claims Ampatuan supporters have arrived in Manila. Then arms and a grenade are discovered near the NBI in Manila. They’re clearly beginning to sow the seeds of justifying a nationwide declaration. All they need is to stage another shocking performance.

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December 5, 2009

A Martial Law rehearsal

The recent declaration of Malacanang placing Maguindanao under martial law sets a dangerous precedent. There are only two reasons granted in the Constitution for the declaration of martial law. First is invasion, the second is rebellion. Clearly, none of these conditions were present in Maguindanao. A few days ago, even the military and the police themselves said that a declaration of martial law is unnecessary. All of a sudden, the Arroyo administration claims there is virtually a rebellion in Maguindanao at the moment. They are stretching its meaning dangerously to accommodate their political plans. Apparent lawlessness in the province is not rebellion. Resistance from arrests is not rebellion. For rebellion to exist, the political motivation of overthrowing the civilian government is necessary. There clearly is no rebellion in Maguindanao. At most, all there is in Maguindanao is a refusal by the Ampatuan camp to cooperate with the authorities. They are armed, yes, but those arms were issued by the government itself, the legal existence of the private army provided for by the President herself. It goes without saying that this condition can be remedied by existing government forces in the province under a “state of emergency”, without the implementation of martial law.

Where then is the danger? The Arroyo administration will lose its executive power in less than a year. The administration ticket is expected to lose the 2010 elections. Arroyo’s congressional candidacy indicates her refusal to step down from power. It is not difficult to surmise that the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao is a rehearsal for a national implementation. With the twisted definition of “rebellion” that it used in Maguindanao to justify the military rule, it is now easy for the administration to call any condition of lawlessness as rebellion in other parts of the country, if not the entire country as a whole.

It thus becomes imperative for us, the people, to show and declare our objection to this move by the Arroyo administration. Neutrality and complacency to the martial law in Maguindanao will only serve to embolden the administration to use it accordingly nationwide, once it loses its other political options in maintaining their hold on power. We demand justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre, but martial law is not the answer.

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September 19, 2009

State abandonment of higher education

This table shows the share of state subsidy and internally-generated income in state universities and colleges’ (SUC) total operating budget through the years. What is evident is that SUC’s are being forced to rely less and less on government subsidy and more and more on internally-generated income (in the form of tuition and other student fees, privatization of assets, etc.).

One sector which has always suffered from the government’s policy of contracting spending for social services in favor of continued debt servicing is the sector of higher education. When I was still in UP, I had friends who abhorred militant activists and the “leftist” slogans. One of the state policies they continuously deny is existing is “state abandonment of education.”

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Contracting social services, taxing the people dry

It has always been a priority for the Arroyo administration to “balance the budget”””meaning, to decrease the gap between government revenues and government spending.

In plain reading, this is good. Trimming the budget deficit should mean less borrowing, and eventually more money for health, education and other social services. However, the goal of balancing the budget under the Arroyo administration, and even before, has always been to ensure the payment of our debt obligations, unfortunately at the expense of social services spending.

To make matters for ordinary citizens worse, in order to balance the budget and earn more revenues, the government, for years, has always put a stress on consumer taxes (E-VAT, sin taxes, proposed text tax) instead of directly taxing corporations and high-income tycoons, instead of taxing imports or plugging the leaks from corruption. In the age of trade liberalization and globalization, government would rather give rich foreign investors, high-income tycoons and importers tariff cuts, tax holidays and other tax incentives.

Aside from taxing the consumer, government has also been selling its assets and privatizing services and public utilities in an effort to hide its poor and lopsided tax effort. This results to private companies concerned largely with profit and not with public service controlling public utilities. Thus, the high power and water rates we experience.

When corruption and smuggling comes into the picture, we arrive at the terrible fiscal decay we find ourselves in. Ordinary people are being taxed dry, and yet social services are continuously deteriorating, and despite all these, our debt just keeps growing and growing.

Below are some graphs that would illustrate the trend of the government in its budget proposals for the past years.

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Taking the side of neither bully in the schoolyard *

Victor Villanueva

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This is another story I submitted for the BlogWatch project of the Philippine Online Chronicles

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