SANA TOTOO ang SONA ng PANGULO

SANA TOTOO ang SONA ng PANGULO

As CHED called off classes this Monday, due to "traffic that will be caused by the 95th celebration of the INC" and the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of GMA, I urge and challenge the UP System to suspend all its classes - from UP Diliman, UP Manila, UP Visayas, UP Los Banos, UP Mindanao, UP Baguio and the UP Open University, to all of its 12 campuses all over the Philippines.

The UP Diliman University Council, composed of assistant professors, associate professors and full professors and chaired by the Chancellor – "said that Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempt to remain in power and to escape accountability 'is an affront to the values (of) public accountability, transparency, honor, and excellence in service' which are held dearly at UP." In line with this, the UP Diliman professors denounce GMA’s con-ass in their latest statement.

The UC vowed to “oppose all attempts of GMA and her allies to convene an illegal constituent assembly and to prolong her rule,” stressing that “(t)he people should freely choose leaders that would truly represent the people’s interests.”

The University Student Council of UP Diliman, the other day, issued a statement vehemently condemning the upcoming SONA of GMA as a mere perpetuation of her lies and illusions.

Now that everything is clear and set, GMA will deliver her last "State of the Nation Address" on Monday. The fate of the country, which we all know, is still uncertain. I appeal to the UP System Administration and the UP Constituent Units and Campuses to call off classes and declare Monday as a National Day of protest!

"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."

Join the July 27 SONA mobilization! Assembly at Quezon Hall at 10 am.


In the service of the UP students and of the Filipino nation,


sgd.

Bong Ong
University Student Council - Councilor
University of the Philippines, Diliman


*If you believe in this, please sign your name above, and pls pass on to your network/ contacts. FOR DISSEMINATION: PLEASE PASS! :)

2009 SONA: Sana Totoo!

The 2009 SONA-SANA video seeks to provide a candid evaluation of the Arroyo presidency, which has, for the past seven SONAs, failed to provide an accurate assessment of the state of our nation.



In the video, which will be made available to the public via the internet, opposition Sen. Francis Joseph "Chiz" G. Escudero reports on how the president has failed to meet the very standards she set when she took over the presidency in 2001. And how despite holding her position for over eight years the country continues to suffer, particularly in the areas of education, job generation, food security, and good governance.

Aside from giving a somber account of the state of the nation, Sen. Escudero also points out what should have been done to address the country's myriad problems, and looks forward as he presents alternatives so that the questionable policies of the present administration can be rectified.

Video and text courtesy of jedmeva

UP Diliman professors denounce GMA’s con-ass

N.B. – This is a press release on the July 20 statement of the University Council of UP Diliman.

Despite President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s claim to the contrary, professors of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman said that she is planning to stay in power even beyond 2010 so that she can enjoy immunity from suit.

In a statement of the UP Diliman’s University Council (UC) – composed of assistant professors, associate professors and full professors and chaired by the Chancellor – they said that Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempt to remain in power and to escape accountability “is an affront to the values (of) public accountability, transparency, honor, and excellence in service” which are held dearly at UP.

The UP Diliman professors added, “There now exists political uncertainty as the public is unaware of what will happen between now and May 2010 when elections are supposed to be held. There is no justice in a situation where an extension of her immunity from suit would bar any prosecution when her term as President expires on June 30, 2010.”

In this context, the UC vowed to “oppose all attempts of GMA and her allies to convene an illegal constituent assembly and to prolong her rule,” stressing that “(t)he people should freely choose leaders that would truly represent the people’s interests.”

At its 109th meeting, the UC approved last July 20 the statement titled “No to GMA’s Illegal Constituent Assembly.” Of those present, 148 voted in favor; 4 voted against and 11 abstained.

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No to GMA’s Illegal Constituent Assembly

A Statement of the University Council of the University of the Philippines Diliman

On the eve of her supposedly final state of the nation address (SONA), the feeble attempt of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies to change the Constitution shows that she is planning to stay in power even beyond 2010 so that she can enjoy immunity from suit.

At the height of the Garci scandal, the University Council (UC) on July 13, 2005 called for her immediate resignation. And on February 28, 2008, the University Council, in the face of massive corruption in GMA’s administration and unsolved extrajudicial killings, unanimously approved a resolution telling GMA it was time to go. To this day, GMA continues to ignore calls from various sectors of society for her to step down.

Today, with 345 days left to her term, GMA and her allies are not preparing to leave office. They are instead preparing to change the Constitution in order to, among others, lift term limits.

House Resolution No. 1109 which seeks to convene the House of Representatives (HOR) into a constituent assembly shows that in the next few days, GMA and her allies would try to prolong her rule. The brazen manner in which this is being done is manifested by the House Speaker’s pronouncement that immediately after the SONA, the HOR would convene itself into one, with or without the Senate and with or without public approval.

Any attempt to change the Constitution at this time could result in the amendment or revision of the following contentious issues: term limits of the President and members of Congress; the date of the elections, or whether such elections would be held; change in the form of government from presidential to parliamentary.

The attempt of GMA to remain in power and to escape accountability is an affront to the values that we hold dear in the University: public accountability, transparency, honor, and excellence in service. There now exists political uncertainty as the public is unaware of what will happen between now and May 2010 when elections are supposed to be held. There is no justice in a situation where an extension of her immunity from suit would bar any prosecution when her term as President expires on June 30, 2010.

In the hundred-and-first year of the University, the University Council of UP Diliman reiterates its call for public accountability, and renews its commitment to work for a just and progressive society. We in the University Council oppose all attempts of GMA and her allies to convene an illegal constituent assembly and to prolong her rule. The people should freely choose leaders that would truly represent the people’s interests.

U.P. Diliman University Council, 20 July 2009

University Council Secretariat
University of the Philippines Diliman
Office of the University Registrar (3/Floor)
Phone 981-8500 ext. 4558, 4554
Fax 927-6084; Mobile 09199464416

For verification, please call UP College of Mass Communication Dean Roland B. Tolentino (928-1388) who is also chair of the University Council Committee on National Policies and Programs.

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.