Explain the tapes
Date: Monday, July 18 @ 10:34:55 CDT
Topic: More News
Explain the tapes
Why is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refusing to answer the
clamor of her supporters and the opposition to answer charges that she cheated
during the May 2004 elections? Why doesn’t she explain her supposed conversation
with Commission on Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano whom she had earlier
appointed regarding her alleged desire to win by more than one million votes over
opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr.?
In the case of the alleged involvement of her son and brother-in-law
in the jueteng payola scandal, she did not hesitate to order her own Department
of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate. But when the
opposition said it would be a whitewash, she asked the independent Office of the
Ombudsman to do the investigation and to file charges against her own family members
if the evidence warrants it.
But in the case of the wiretapped tapes, she has refused to explain
it beyond saying that she will do so “at the appropriate time.” Instead
of answering, she had defiantly said that she will serve her full term, adding
that she won the elections and did not cheat.
When will the President explain her voice in the tape?
Maybe the President and her assistants are hoping that the storm
will just blow over and that the political leaders, the business community and
the Filipino people will just forget it if she manages to hold out long enough
and not admit to any wrongdoing.
This tactics will not work. Blaming the opposition for triggering
this crisis or accusing them of economic sabotage is not an acceptable way out.
In the meantime, the nation is in a state of flux. It seems that
everything that she had done to alleviate the sufferings of the Filipino people
by drafting an economic plan and other programs would just go to naught. Everything
that she will do from now on would be held suspect. The support of her backers
and the Filipino people will continue to erode as long as she refuses to explain
the alleged cheating in the elections.
The President should stop delaying her answer. Her ability to govern
is at stake. Her supporters, in particular, must hear her side so they could have
something to use to defend her. There is no other way out.
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