The people of this beleaguered nation now find themselves in a nightmarish situation as calm and civility have been sold in exchange for brute power and barbarity. This comes about as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has unjustly placed the country under a state of national emergency, a euphemism for martial law, through Proclamation 1017 over a presumed military mutiny aimed against her government. President Arroyo’s proclamation has plunged the country into dictatorial rule and has instantaneously malformed the military and police organizations into instruments of state repression. Grave infringements on civil liberties and the people’s democratic rights were committed against the unsuspecting populace through a vicious string of warrantless arrests and manhunt of the president’s critics.
Certainly, a dark night of terror has befallen the country. President Arroyo has turned her back from her constitutional oath and moral duty to protect the citizenry and discriminatorily put the Filipino people under siege. What we see is the aggressive emergence of a military state in response to the people’s growing dissent over President Arroyo’s unrealized promises to institute good governance and meaningful socio-economic and socio-political reforms and to the mounting call for her to step down from the presidency.
The present circumstances cannot but deserve the indignation of the Filipino people. What our nation needs today is a way out of the ever-worsening economic and political maladies, and not another authoritarian rule. A people engulfed by the blinding darkness of the night can only but rightly light their torches and lift them high up to vanquish the frightening onslaught of a dead darkness. In the same spirit, the Filipino people have all the right to fight back to defend themselves and the freedom that they have victoriously regained and earned for themselves when threatened by the violence of tyranny. Martial rule cannot quash the courageous spirit and strength of a heroic people to bring about a Philippine nation that is truly sovereign and a government for the Filipinos that is truly democratic.
The Iglesia Filipina Independiente denounces in the strongest possible terms President Arroyo’s act of placing the country under a state of national emergency. It lacks constitutional and moral grounds for it gravely contradicts the people’s aspiration for the building of a peaceful, just and humane Philippine society. The most that it can provide is a false sense of security and stability to her government as much as it only leads to state fascism and graver violations of human, civil and democratic rights of the Filipino people. We therefore strongly call on President Arroyo to withdraw Proclamation 1017 in the soonest possible time and respect the inherent right of our people to live in freedom. We also reiterate our appeal for her to take the patriotic duty to step down from the presidency to spare our country from the agony of further dissent and division and to give way for the establishment of a democratic government that can truly unite and represent our people. The Filipino people deserve a president and a government that will truly uphold their aspiration, promote and protect their wellbeing, and bring about a country that is genuinely independent and democratic.
We also urge the faithful and the rest of the Filipino people to stand firmly and courageously resist martial rule. Enshrined in our very soul as a nation is our inherent right to freedom, and it is our solemn duty as a people to protect and preserve this legacy. Let us persevere in our journey towards just peace, democracy and sovereignty as a people and a nation. The Spirit is bidding us; ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made (you) free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.’ (Galatians 5.1)
Pro Deo et Patria.
† RT REVD EPHRAIM S. FAJUTAGANA
General Secretary
26th February 2006
Obispado Maximo, City of Manila
Obispado Maximo, City of Manila
No comments:
Post a Comment