NDF scores Arroyo�s hypocrisy in Edsa 1 commemmoration

Rubi Del Mundo
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao
February 24, 2005

The Arroyo regime is reversing the gains of the Edsa 1 People Power uprising and does not have the moral high ground to say that her government is preserving its legacy.

The National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao also believes Arroyo is fast becoming the 21st century Marcos�tuta, diktador, pasista (puppet, dictator, fascist).

For one, her regime is bent on executing draconian measures like the anti-terror bill and the national identification system under a comprehensive Internal Security Act. Civil libertarian lawmakers, human rights groups, militant organizations and peace advocates are correct in opposing the proposed policies as these would pave the way for a blanket curtailment of civil and political rights.

Yet, even before these measures are legislated, the US-Arroyo regime has already instigated the worst acts of state terrorism. Bombings that have struck hundreds of hapless victims and killed nearly a hundred others have rocked her term. These were deceptively referred to as terrorist attacks and have been made a convenient ruse for greater US military intervention in the country.

For another, the Arroyo regime�s intensified military offensives have dislocated thousands of Moro civilians and peasantfolks in the countryside. Arroyo�s fascist generals have led suppression campaigns in the peasant villages using a combination of psychological warfare, civilian-military operations and all-out military offensives. The AFP campaigns have spawned massive human rights atrocities and violations to the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, a human rights pact signed by the NDFP and the GRP represented by Joseph Estrada in 1998.

What makes Arroyo even worse than the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos is that despite no formal declaration of Martial Law in the country, her regime is responsible for the salvagings or extra-judicial killings, abduction and the open terror against suspected criminals and critics.

The killings of hundreds of so-called petty criminals in Davao City and other cities have flourished under a system of police and military connivance. Crusading journalists are being gunned down with no hope of justice available under the present dispensation. More and more members and leaders of critical progressive party-list groups and militant organizations are also abducted, harassed and killed.

By pushing for additional exorbitant taxes despite popular opposition to it, Arroyo has betrayed its rabidly anti-people character reminiscent of the Marcos dictatorship.

There is no other recourse but for the Filipino people to persevere and overthrow this rotten system and build a society that is truly free and democratic.

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