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GMA, the "Dagdag Bawas" President is Doomed

Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos
Spokesperson
NDF-Mindanao
June 29, 2004

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration is doomed to collapse before her new term ends. She has no popular mandate; her three years in office proved a dismal failure; the country is rocked by an ever-worsening economic crisis and the people are evermore restless.

GMA lost in the May 10 presidential election. She got her 470,000 votes margin over FPJ in Mindanao through massive vote buying and "dagdag bawas" especially in Moro areas. She lost in almost all major cities in Mindanao and in the bailiwick cities and provinces of her most trusted winning candidates. She even lost in Lanao del Norte, her second home province. Had election been held less fraudulently in Mindanao, FPJ easily prevailed as the winner. GMA's questionable 2.3 million votes lead over FPJ in the Visayas would have been overhauled by FPJ's combined lead in Luzon and Mindanao.

Clearly, GMA does not have a peoples' mandate. This explains why, like a thief, GMA was frantically proclaimed winner at 3:35 in the morning of June 25. This also explains why Metro Manila is teeming with an overkill number of AFP and PNP forces acting as election goons against the armless protesters. This further explains why she has to take her oath of office away from Manila, fearful of peoples' ire. She also prioritized her visit in Butuan and not in Davao and Cagayan de Oro, the latter two being premier cities in the south where she was rejected.

Her three year record will show why majority of the Filipino people voted against her. Her land reform program is even worse than the bogus land reform of her predecessors. She even refuses to grant wage increase demanded by the workers. Her administration record of graft and corruption even surpassed that of the deposed Estrada administration. Shamelessly, she burdens the people with more taxes for the likes of "Jose Pidal" to steal.

Our country's economy sinks even deeper under the leadership of a president who claims to be an economic expert. Our foreign debt ballooned to 56.7 Billion dollars from 55.5 billion dollars in just one year. Budget deficit soared to 415 million dollars in just five months, the peso value against the dollar has never recovered since GMA assumed presidency. Her bias for multinational firms allowed rapid oil price increases resulting to the skyrocketing of prices of basic commodities, transport, water and power, health and education services.

Her unabashed puppetry is shown by being a rabid supporter of the war crimes of the US imperialist against the people of Iraq and her arbitrary endorsement of the US intervention in our country in the guise of Balikatan exercises and campaign against terrorism. Her "all-out war", "anti-terror", "counter-insurgency" campaigns and suppression of the peoples' democratic rights resulted to rampant human rights violations, beating the records of the previous regimes. Her token interest for peace came late when it was clear that she failed in the poll survey.

The peoples' vote in the last election is a vote of dejection of the US-Arroyo regime. Robbed of this collective decision the people shall settle score with the US-Arroyo regime through another form and in another venue - possibly in another round of Edsa type uprising. This may come sooner than expected once the masses together with other aggrieved parties and groups are galvanized into a formidable force that can unseat an unpopular president.

GMA's call for reconciliation must be based on social justice, and it should be addressed principally to the people victimized by her regime's numerous economic and political crimes. Time is short for her to prove her commitment to genuine land reform, sovereignty and patrimony of our country, human rights and just peace. And secondly, she should reconcile with the opposition parties in relation to the conduct of the last election by upholding the truth - that she lost.

Once again we have witnessed how dirty, fraudulent and violent reactionary elections are and how these misrepresent the genuine peoples' will. Reactionary elections cannot bring about basic social change, but we respect and support the peoples' collective decision to reject the US-Arroyo regime in the last May 10 presidential election. In this context, NDF-Mindanao calls upon all parties and groups to fight for and uphold the truth with regards to the conduct and result of the last election.