Senator Roxas: GMA must stop corruption, misuse of power now

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said President Arroyo must now stop corruption in her administration and give up efforts to stay in power beyond 2010 or face the wrath of a people fed up with graft-tainted controversies and the blatant misuse of power of government officials.

"I warn the present administration about the clear signals of a systems' failure in almost several fronts of governance. The plunderers are not being put in jail. The hungry are not being served. The victims of social and criminal injustice are not being given their due. The nation is extremely dissatisfied with the national management and leadership because the people see power being exercised not to their interest but to the interest of a chosen few," he said as he recalled the circumstances that led to the first EDSA people power.

He said with President Arroyo seemingly ignoring corruption scandals swamping her administration and her allies pursuing constitutional amendments to lift term limits, the activist attitude within Filipinos are being silently stirred into action, a situation which he said could become uncontrollable because of the "incessant and seemingly insurmountable ailment of corruption and the misuse of power."

"The biggest cause of military adventurism is the plunder of the people's money by those in power combined by brazen attempts to perpetuate themselves beyond the limits of the Constitution," he said, noting that, "today, observers here and abroad have already labeled our nation as a failing democracy. The scandals are rife in the midst of an economic crisis crying out for the full and undistracted attention of government. Hunger mounts and crime is up. Peace is not at hand," he pointed out.

"President Arroyo has no more time to wait. She must cut corruption and renounce perpetuation in power with decisive acts and clear words. As in the months leading to February 1986, she must not court adventurism from those who hold the monopoly of force in our society," he stressed.

The Ilonggo senator said that with government systems beginning to show signs of failing, similar to the country's situation months and years before the 1986 uprising, "the next stage is the collapse of institutions. When institutions collapse, the entire Republic follows."

"Nevertheless, I have high hopes that our democracy is secure, mainly because the Filipino people have so much faith in it, because they have proven so many times in the past that they will never sacrifice democracy in the altar of expediency and self-serving gain," he said.

"On this day in 1986, the Filipino people won against dictatorship owing largely to the valiant stand of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The young officers at the helm of the EDSA revolution were daring and selfless. We extol them today not because we believe that martial adventurism is a cure to a ruined democracy, but because we believe that even at the darkest moments when all hope seems lost for freedom, there are valiant Filipinos who are willing to lay down life and honor to preserve it."