IN THE PAST, LET'S MAKE IT RIGHT!
MANILA, FEBRUARY 26, 2012 (INQUIRER) By Norman Bordadora - Twenty-six
years after millions flocked to Edsa to overthrow a dictator, President Benigno
Aquino III on Saturday rallied Filipinos to take action against the judiciary
that, he said, like martial law was one of the "wrongs committed in the past"
that needed to be corrected.
Apparently continuing on a recent favorite theme, the condemnation of
impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, Mr. Aquino urged "immediate action,"
saying martial law happened because people decades ago chose to keep silent
until they could no longer bear the sufferings it brought the country.
"Now, after 26 years, it is clear that our fight is not yet finished," Mr.
Aquino said in a speech during the Edsa anniversary ceremonies at the People
Power Monument.
"As we link our arms in the straight path, I trust that we can reach a
society that is free from a judiciary with two faces—one with a partial justice
system and another with balanced scales," he said.
As in previous speeches attacking Corona, the President urged the
people to participate and act as the Chief Justice's trial at the Senate
impeachment court enters its seventh week.
"If you want to remain in the old system, go ahead and pretend to be deaf.
Pretend to be blind. Don't speak. Don't participate," he said.
"But if you believe that there's something wrong in the system and that this
has to be corrected, let's go and push back (Tara, pumalag tayo). Let's
participate. Let's make it right," he added.
The President made these remarks in the presence of three senator-judges who
were sitting onstage with him—Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate
Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Gregorio Honasan.
Enrile made one of his rare appearances at an Edsa anniversary celebration.
Enrile and Honasan were among the military and defense leaders who went
against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the first Edsa People Power Revolution
in February 1986. Enrile was the then defense minister and Honasan was his chief
security aide and leader of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, or RAM.
Weedy and straight paths
"Our country is now facing a crossroad. In one direction is the weedy
path, where the influential holds the scales of justice and those who manipulate
the law benefit," Mr. Aquino said.
"In the other is the straight path where the rules are clear, justice favors
no one and those who are at fault are made answerable. Let's remember: Martial
law happened because Filipinos kept silent for too long," he said.
"As was said way before, 'Kung hindi ka kikilos, sino pa? Kung hindi ngayon,
kailan pa?' Let us now move before it's too late. Let us now move so that we can
quickly leave behind the darkness in the past," he said.
In another speech earlier Saturday, following wreath-laying rites at the
monuments in Manila of his parents—the late former President Corazon Aquino and
martyred opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr.—and the late Jaime Cardinal Sin,
the President pressed on with his anti-Corona theme.
Filipinos have an opportunity to effect change, they should not waste it, he
said.
"Unity, concern and love for country. Let us use these for the legacy of Edsa
to be fruitful. Let us not waste this opportunity. This is our time. This is our
time. Let's go, Filipino," he said.
He said working for reforms is the duty of every Filipino, "not just of Ninoy
and Cory Aquino."
Record highs
In his speech, the President also said investor confidence in the Philippines
was at a record high during his 19-month administration, as shown by P439
billion worth of investments that have poured into the Philippine Economic Zone
Authority (Peza).
The amount already represents 22 percent of the P2.003 trillion worth of
investments that went into the Peza since 1995, he said.
Mr. Aquino made the remarks amid criticism that the economy slowed down
during his administration because of his alleged preoccupation with politics and
going after perceived political foes, including former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and Chief Justice Corona.
"After one and a half years of the straight path, let us ask ourselves: Is
there a difference between our system now and the system that we came upon
before when for almost a decade Filipinos were affected by graft and
corruption?" Mr. Aquino said.
"The correct answer: It's a huge difference," he said.
The President said the international financial community has placed much
confidence in the country because of the reforms his administration has been
carrying out.
Bragging rights
"We are not one to brag but when the country has registered all-time highs in
the stock index 16 times and when Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch
credit-rating raised our grade several times, this is no longer called
bragging," he said.
"This is called reforms and results," he said.
Mr. Aquino said the Japan External Trade Organization has also declared that
the Philippines is an ideal destination for businessmen in Asia in both
manufacturing and services sectors.
He said the organization cited the country's skilled workers and the
affordability of doing business in the country.
"This kind of success isn't achieved by chance," he added.
He said his government has "dismantled the barricades of poverty using our
conditional cash transfer program."
He said the target of getting 2.3 million families into the program in 2011
has been exceeded by 45,000 before the year ended.
Rehashed speeches
The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said Mr. Aquino's Edsa
anniversary speech was just a rehash of his previous "daang matuwid" (straight
path) rhetoric, and just glorified his administration's conditional cash
transfer program and improved ratings from foreign agencies.
Bayan said the nation may have another Aquino at the helm, but this is not
necessarily a sign of better things to come. Human rights violations continue,
victims of the Marcos dictatorship have yet to receive true and complete
justice, human rights violations victims during the Arroyo administration have
yet to receive their due as well, it said. Hunger, poverty, unemployment and US
intervention continue, Bayan said.
"We commemorate Edsa I not because it represents a heroism that is singularly
ascribed to any one person or political color. We commemorate Edsa I because it
represents the Filipino people's dreams and aspirations that have yet to be
fulfilled," said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes.
"And these dreams and aspirations will not likely be fulfilled even under the
second Aquino regime. We definitely have no illusions in that regard," he
further said.
Don't just criticize
But for Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, it will not do
for people to just sit and criticize.
"Let everyone be involved. Don't wait to be critics alone," the young
archbishop told the hundreds of devotees who continued to pour in even after his
homily had started at the noontime Mass on Saturday at the Edsa Shrine.
Tagle told reporters his message was not addressed to any person in
particular.
Change, after all, cannot be achieved by one person alone, or only by the
people who hold positions of power, he said.
"Do not leave the responsibility up to the (people in government)," he said.
This was what God did in the first place, Tagle said. The Supreme Being chose
several people, and not only one man, to be the "light of this world," he said.
In Bacolod City, at least 200 people joined two separate rallies that
demanded the ouster of Corona and the transfer of Arroyo to a regular jail
facility from Veterans Memorial Medical Center. The rallies at the Fountain of
Justice were organized by Bayan and the yellow-clad members of the Negrenses for
Corona Removal (N4CR).
Bayan denounced the President for allegedly using the Corona impeachment and
Arroyo trial to hide his inutile position on the series of oil price increases.
"Aquino has long betrayed the spirit of the Edsa by not standing with the
people's demand for genuine land reform, nationalist industrialization and
upholding national patrimony over foreign interests," said Bayan Negros
secretary-general Christian Tuayon. With reports from
Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Leila B. Salaverria and Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer
Visayas
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
