Sexy, Innocent Child-Woman

Vigilance, my friends!

(NOTE: To all those who voiced their opinions in response to my last post, thank you for sharing where you're coming from. I respect your views. This post reflects my own position. You are free to skip this entry as you see fit.)

I just found out that GMA lifted the state of emergency in the Philippines today. Thanks be to God...but no thanks to her. It's about time she did that, for crying out loud. Proclamation 1017 was rife with contradictions, to begin with--considering that GMA's lapdogs acknowledged that they had preempted the coup attempt staged by disgruntled members of the military. Indeed, much has been said about the extent to which the declaration of a state of emergency is the ghost of Martial Law.

Don't get me wrong. I am strongly against the coup plot of power-hungry factions of the military, which I believe is a serious matter. And I will not support any sort of military junta under any circumstances. But I also strongly oppose the Arroyo administration's blatant attempts to curtail civil liberties and to suppress any form of dissent on the part of ordinary citizens, political interest groups, and sectors of civil society, who cannot be faulted for thinking critically! In a similar vein, I condemn the assault on press freedom, rendered "legitimate" under the damning Proclamation.

The turn of events following the declaration of a state of emergency illuminate the extent to which the powers that be will stop at nothing in order to further its hegemony. One has only to consider the following events: the warrantless arrests and/or violent dispersal of the demonstrators (who were practically on their knees); the arrests of the likes of Randy David, Atty. Argee Guevarra, and Representative Crispin Beltran, and the threat of arrest directed at party-list Representatives Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza, Teodoro Casino, Joel Virador, and Rafael Mariano; Defensor's smug statements about the government's "ability" to take over public utilities, "even media facilities," if need be, under the terms of Proclamation 1017; the issuance of guidelines for the media, which implicitly prohibited the airing of unflattering stories about the government; and the raid of the Tribune. Can you say "human rights violations," anyone? Ironically, all these took place 20 years after we Filipinos gathered together and risked our lives in order to boot a tyrant's ass out of Malacanang and reclaim our democracy. Indeed, the latest beneficiary of People Power turned her back on the spirit of EDSA.

In lifting Proclamation 1017, GMA's actions were not motivated by public concerns about the impact of the state of emergency on the economy, let alone the exercise of people's democratic, constitutional rights. Her indecisiveness regarding the matter, manifested in her reliance on the assessment of Cabinet officials, reinforces this point. It is crucial for us to keep informed, to be wary of the administration's next moves and any attempts at whitewashing.

So what happens now? Do we simply "move on," as if no constitutional rights were violated, in the same way that significant numbers of people chose to "move on" after finding out about the "lapse in judgment" that led to the infamous conversations between Ma'am [GMA] and Garci? Do we simply "move on," as if nothing happened, in the same way that many of us "moved on" after the impeachment attempt against Her Highness was quashed by her minions in Congress?

To remain apathetic in the face of oppression is to consent to our own oppression.

Hindi pa tapos ang laban.

found herself @ 11:37 PM