Huling KaSONAngalingan

This coming Monday, we will again be subjected to fiction of such magnitude as to leave us incredulous— not because the lies are unbelievable in themselves, but because we cannot understand how anyone has the sheer audacity to take us for utter fools.

And yet for the past eight years, the Gloria Arroyo administration has done nothing but to fabricate lies and illusions of development and change to the Filipino people, despite the stark realities of increasing poverty, unemployment, the fiscal crisis, lack of adequate social services, political persecution, and human rights violations, to name a few.

As a final tribute to GMA’s talent for deception, we offer a compilation of her finest tall stories as a eulogy in what would hopefully be the last SONA of her final days as the President.

Lie #1: GMA does not have political ambitions beyond 2004/2010

Even before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stole the presidency in 2004, she had already begun to spin her web of lies. Back in 2002, GMA had announced that she will not run for President in the next elections. Little did the Filipino people know that she was already in cahoots with Garci to rig the elections in her favor. And now, GMA’s frequent visits to her home province of Pampanga stirs speculations that she has plans to run for Congresswoman, and eventually Prime Minister. We shall be guarded against the possibility that GMA has secret political ambitions to remain in power beyond 2010, for we refuse to be hoodwinked again.

Lie #2: GMA will reduce corruption in her government

GMA knows that if she steps down, she will have to face the criminal and administrative charges that she has been hiding from under the cloak of presidential immunity. She will have to answer for the corruption scams, kickbacks, and scandals that she and the First Gentleman have used to bleed our national treasury dry. The Jose Pidal Scandal, the overpricing of the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, the Fertilizer Fund Scam, and the ZTE-NBN deal, among others, sums up to a staggering P20.9 Billion in ill-gotten wealth. We shall hold her accountable for her insatiable greed, in juxtaposition with our country’s underdevelopment and poverty, as the latest government survey shows that the number of poor Filipinos had increased by 3.8 million to reach 27.6 million in 2006.

Lie #3: GMA upholds human rights

As the Commander-in-Chief, she will also have to answer for human rights violations, in what has been tagged as the bloodiest regime post-Marcos era. The number of politically-motivated killings and enforced disappearances has breached unbelievable levels in today’s modern democracy; and yet political harassment and quasi-dictatorial measures are still a reality among us Filipinos. We shall remember the unconstitutional PP1017, the Calibrated Preemptive Response, and the persecution of the Batasan Five, for we refuse to regress into the Dark Ages of authoritarian rule and terror.

Lie #4: GMA sees Cha-Cha as venue for social and political change

GMA thinks that she is insulated from the critiques on her administration by surrounding herself with opportunists and hypocrites, who are all too eager to fork over their accountability to their constituencies for additional pork barrel, and perhaps a travel junket or two. Her accomplices, such as favorite toady Rep. Nograles, have only recently demonstrated how deeply entrenched they are in traditional dirty politics by railroading the Con-Ass House Resolution, despite the staunch opposition from the masses. The manner and ill-timing in which GMA’s administration is fast-tracking Charter Change stink of desperation, self interest, and self-perpetuation. We shall remain steadfast in our principled stand against GMA’s Cha-Cha, for any constitutional change must be for the people and by the people.

This Monday, the stage is set for yet another show— her enthusiastic audience will be over-eager to applaud, her fascist police are freshly-trained to pounce on innocent civilian protesters, and Gloria Arroyo herself has prepared a new speech containing the same old lies.

And we, too, shall be there— the proud, defiant and tireless Iskolar ng Bayan—to say once and for all, the curtain on GMA’s regime shall fall.

UP Diliman University Student Council

Join the pre-SONA Vigil and Cultural Night on July 27 at 6pm.
Join the July 27 SONA mobilization! Assembly at Quezon Hall at 10 am.