PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP slams GMA's treacherous amnesty program
December 19, 2003

The Communist Party of the Philippines today slammed the proposed general amnesty program of the Arroyo government calling it "another cheap and desperate political gimmick and, worse, a treacherous attempt to reverse the people's judgements against ousted villains of Malaca�ang in the persons of Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada."

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said that proposed amnesty "will completely deny justice to the Filipino people who were victimized by the grave crimes of repression and plunder by the Marcos and Estrada regimes."

Rosal said further that Macapagal-Arroyo is desperately dreaming that she can cajole the Estradas and Marcoses with this cheap and anti-people amnesty offer and unite the entire reactionary ruling classes behind her, hoodwink the people with this see-through public relations gimmick, and thus clinch next year's elections. "She still suffers from a stubborn illusion that she can run away with the elections with nothing else but such gimmickries left to prop her up.�

Rosal also said that only a grand-scale plunderer like Arroyo can even think of granting amnesty to other grand-scale plunderers. Rosal was alluding to the big-scale graft and corruption charges against the Arroyo couple.

Rosal added that all of Arroyo�s other amnesty programs, including previous ones offered to NPA and MILF rebels, are nothing but blatant shams and utter failures. Rosal said �Nilangaw lang ang lahat ng mga iyon (they were all ignored). The better thing for her to do is to unconditionally release the more than 150 long-held political prisoners.�###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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