Filams: No to new People Power

By Jennie L. Ilustre WASHINGTON - Filipinos in the Greater Metropolitan D.C. Area are weary and wary of another “People Power” and foresee a solution within the law in the worsening political crisis in the Philippines.
And unlike the U.S. Filipino Catholic Ministries and the New York Theological Seminary, no area group has called for President Gloria Arroyo to resign, with some expressing plain exasperation over politics in the Philippines.
“Here we go again,” said Doming Samson, who works for a publication company in this nation’s capital.
Ramon Paterno, a community leader from Virginia, is against People Power this time. “President Arroyo has no choice. She should step down, also because she promised to implement reform and has not delivered on that promise,” he said.
The crisis was triggered by allegations of vote tampering in the May 2004 presidential elections, based on wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and an election official.
In this capital, Ambassador to the U.S. Albert Del Rosario issued a call July 1 to all Filipino citizens in the United States “to maintain support for the nation and its duly constituted authorities.”
In an embassy press conference July 8, Ambassador to the U.S. Albert del Rosario, noting continued interest in the Philippines despite the crisis, said that a tour of 516 Filipino American families and business people to the Philippines would go on as scheduled. The ambassador, with ten Philippine consuls generals across the U.S., organized the July 13-19 tour, the first of its kind.
Del Rosario stressed his support for Arroyo, saying, “President Arroyo has decided that she will not resign, that she will do her duty to uphold the Constitution and strengthen the institutions of our nation.”
In the Philippines, a congressional committee is holding hearings on the tapes. When Congress reconvenes July 25, it will take up an amended impeachment charge filed by a citizen lawyer.
Jon Melegrito prefers this legal route, in particular the congressional probe. A community leader from Maryland, he was a former activist during the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
But he’s against the parliament of the streets this time. “Resorting to another People-power driven change in governments will further erode the integrity of the constitutional process and cause more destabilization,” he said in an interview.
“Instead, we should resolve the current situation through legal means, in ways that will strengthen and not undermine our democratic institutions,” he stressed.
“It’s good that Arroyo acknowledged she was the woman in the taped conversations, and we should let the due process take its course, and let the congressional probe ascertain the truth,” he added days later, after learning Arroyo had made the admission and the apology to the nation on June 27.
Among those interviewed, Samson is the only one who said Filipinos “should resort to People Power if the facts call for it.” He also lamented the media bias. “I visit the Philippine website every day without fail, and I read fully knowing which newspapers are pro-Arroyo administration and which are pro-opposition,” he said.
Most get their news from online versions of Philippine newspapers on www.philnews.com. Others have ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel, call relatives back home, or have contact with Philippine officials.
Random in-person, phone and email interviews showed Filipinos in Greater Metro D.C., including those who declined to be identified, showed they either have strong opinions or are indifferent.
Remarked Juliet Paredes Manlapaz, a semi-retired registered dietitian from Lanham, Maryland in a phone interview: “I only read one newspaper, the Filipino Reporter when I was in New York. We’re too far away to get to the bottom of things on what’s really going on there and what will happen,”
In this capital, Joy Morisette admitted, “What’s going on? I don’t follow the news anymore, when my grandmother was still alive, I got all my news from her.”
Juanita Tamayo Lott is a Maryland social scientist and author of “Common Destiny: Filipino Americans Through Generations,” with a February 2006 Fil-American Centennial release date. She said over the phone, “People’s comments from outside the Philippines are secondary. It’s up to the Filipino people to decide.”
Excerpts from Ambassador Del Rosario’s statement released by the Philippine embassy here July 1 follows: “This issue is now being addressed in the Philippine House of Representatives. The public debate is fully engaged. The facts will be established.”
“In the meanwhile, the government is proceeding with the implementation of essential programs... The embassy calls on all Filipinos in the United States to maintain support for the nation and its duly constituted authorities.”