Arroyo in panic is applying Marcos-style tactics to force her �victory�

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesperson
Communist Party of the Philippines
June 19, 2004

Arroyo is in panic at the growing threat against her clinching the proclamation as president by June 30. In an increasingly desperate bid to cling to power, Arroyo�s ruling regime is applying brute tactics to suppress protest actions and railroad the proclamation amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud and doubts about her claim to an electoral mandate.

The Communist Party of the Philippines condemns such Marcosian brutality as the violent dispersal of demonstrations and the deployment of thousands of fully armed �anti-riot� policemen tasked to prevent the people from holding rallies and other forms of democratic action. Suddenly, the police has declared that mere criticism of Arroyo and protests against her having committed widespread fraud in the recent elections are violations of law and constitute bases for dispersing rallies. Malaca�ang justified the blatant assault on legitimate protestors by calling them �agents of anarchy and national ruin,� as Hitler also called all those opposed to the Nazi regime.

To carry out a mailed fist policy, intimidate the people and justify violent attacks on legitimate protest actions, Arroyo�s key national security, armed forces, police, intelligence and psywar henchmen are busy concocting one destablization scenario after another purportedly being planned and implemented by the New People�s army in collusion with the political opposition and disgruntled military officers and forces.

To give credence to such destablization scenarios, the Presidential Guard Battalion, the AFP and the PNP have even come out with a ludicruous yarn about a supposed NPA plot to assassinate Arroyo, her main rival Fernando Poe Jr, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, former DND Secretary and now NAKTAF chief Angelo Reyes and COMELEC chairman Benjamin Abalos.

We observe with keen interest the ongoing congressional canvassing of the presidential and vice-presidential votes. We note the growing restlessness of the people over the adamance of Arroyo's ilk in congress to prevent the election returns from being opened and examined. These returns are strongly and widely believed to be inconsistent with the certificates of canvass and show concrete evidence of widespread fraud by the Arroyo camp.

The Arroyo camp has also been coming up with various gimmicks and tricks, such as the filing of criminal charges to harass opposition lawyers, the better to railroad the congressional canvass.

All this will, however, only boomerang against the Arroyo regime. Its brute suppression of legitimate protests and opposition and its railroading of Arroyo's proclamation all the more higlight the issues it wants to suppress and further isolates it from the people.

More and more people are now stepping forward to protest the systematic and massive electoral fraud and violence, the railroading of the congressional canvass and the suppression of the people's democratic rights. Even if Arroyo wields the full force of the state�s coercive powers, she may no longer be able to stop the whirlwind of protests against her further stay in Malaca�ang.

Even if she manages to railroad a �victory� by June 30, it will be a Pyrrhic one. The political situation becomes all the more volatile with a doubtful electoral mandate hanging like a sword of Damocles over her head.

Back to top