GMA comes up short again on June 12 rites, say militants

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 02:57 PM

Manila-- The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on Tuesday called President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Independence Day speech as “another pitch for an Enchanted Kingdom while totally missing out on the point of the celebration.”



“National unity has been a battle cry of this administration. There can be no national unity and reconciliation with a government that is focused on perpetuating itself in power. This government stands against everything that the independence movement stood for more than 100 years ago,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.



“There also can be no genuine freedom when rights are trampled just so a government can skirt issues of legitimacy and accountability. The Arroyo government is the single biggest threat to whatever freedoms we enjoy. The small freedoms that we have won are being taken away by a rising authoritarian regime,” Reyes added.



Arroyo’s speech was short and ushered in the Independence Day parade at the Luneta Grandstand. She again focused on the economic gains under her administration.



Protests have hounded Arroyo on issues of electoral fraud, human rights violations and government misrule.



“It is unfortunate that Arroyo invokes the memory of our national heroes when she talks about her program of government. I don’t think our heroes will agree with how Arroyo is running government today. Economic gains are meaningless to a country that does not enjoy its freedom,” Reyes said.



Bayan raised the specter of the anti-terrorism law which it said was a looming threat to freedom once implemented. The Human Security Act has been assailed as being too vague and would encroach on established civil liberties.



Bayan also lamented that modern days heroes such as “critics of injustice and whistleblowers against fraud” are being killed under the Arroyo administration.



“Heroism is not lost on Filipinos. There are many who have sacrificed in the fight against injustice and oppression; the election officer who was killed in Maguindanao, the teacher who was killed in a fire in Taysan, Batangas and the pastor who was abducted and tortured by security forces. They are all heroes,” Reyes said.