ARREST!

In trying to absolve, before the public, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration of responsibility for the Wowowee tragedy which killed at least 75 people –- one of the deaths being a forced abortion –- on Feb. 4, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita has shown nothing except the extent of his servility toward Malacañang.

Those were among the wisest of words. “Saying that this event is a mirror of poverty is carrying it too far,” he said. “There is a tragedy because of the program.”

Either the honorable executive secretary was taking us for a ride or he had yet to acquaint himself with the nature of the television program that marked its first anniversary by being at the heart of a national tragedy.

Yes, the stampede that marked Wowowee’s first anniversary is a national tragedy. More than being an issue of reckless imprudence on the part of the show’s organizers – which it definitely is –- the Wowowee tragedy is an extremely depressing picture of what this country has come to.

An overwhelming majority of the more than 30,000 who had lined up in front of the PhilSports Arena (also known as the ULTRA) were from the margins of Philippine society, a “basket case of a society” in the words of poet and literary scholar Gelacio Guillermo. Those of us who regularly go to the vicinity of the ABS-CBN compound have noticed that those who line up for Wowowee in the hope of getting into its contests look alike: their attires speak of the daily ordeal of surviving with less than the barest necessities, the looks in their eyes speak of hopelessness.

They pushed and trod over each other in a rush to get inside the stadium because of rumors that the show was giving away raffle tickets to the first 300 people to enter. The prizes ranged from cash to taxicabs to a house and lot –- giving a sense of “hope” that those with raffle tickets would have a chance to lift themselves and their loved ones out of the rut with one stroke of luck.

It was this desperate yearning for a sudden exit from penury, or even for a small amount of money to tide them over for a few weeks or months, that drove the people to push and tread over each other in a rush to get in. Because of this desperation, at least 75 people are now dead. Most of the dead are women –- the ones who daily confront the question of how to make do with a pittance –- and most of the women who died were grandmothers. Only three of those who died were men.

The Macapagal-Arroyo government cannot wash its hands of responsibility in this tragedy.

Hunger and joblessness statistics have reached all-time highs under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose supposed mandate in the 2004 election is not even credible to say the least. The gap between the cost of living and the wages of an average workingman in this country ever widens as the government imposes additional tax burdens on the people who already have nothing to spare, supposedly to stave off a crisis they were not responsible for in the first place.

You have missed the point, Secretary Ermita. This is a national tragedy. It is not simply “because of the program” –- unless you are talking about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s program of governance.

• Southern Tagalog Exposure
• KASIBULAN Women Visual Artists’ Collective
• KUMASA (Kulturang Ugnayan ng Manggagawa at Uring Anakpawis sa Timog Katagalugan)
• ARTIST, Inc. (Arts Research and Training Institute in Southern Tagalog)
• Kilometer 64 Poetry Group
• Tambisan sa Sining
• APLAYA (Artistang Pangkultura ng Mamamalakaya sa Timog Katagalugan)
• UPLB Umalohokan
• Pokus Gitnang Luson
• Paolo Martinez
• Andrea Muñoz
• Gian Paolo Mayuga
• Jeffrey Ferrer
• Onin Tagaro
• Bobby Balingit
• Winnie Balingit
• Lourd de Veyra
• Dong Abay
• Ninj Abay
• Con Cabrera
• Roselle Pineda
• Heidi Takama

It was an artist –- film director Lino Brocka –- who, as one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, formulated the provision for one of the cornerstones of the democracy we are supposed to be: specifically Art. III, Sec. 4 which states that: “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

If democracy is government by the people, as the word’s etymology tell us, there can be no democracy without freedom of speech and expression – and press freedom is the freedom of speech and expression as exercised by media practitioners, in the same way that academic freedom is the exercise of the freedom of speech and expression by members of the academe. A truly empowered people are free to say how the government should be run.

The freedom of speech and expression is particularly sacred to us artists since it is essential to our work that we have the liberty to say how we perceive the world and the human condition at a given time. If liberty is “the soul’s right to breathe,” as the lead character in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting so eloquently says, the freedom of speech and expression is the artist’s right to be.

It is this cornerstone of the democracy we are supposed to be, this right held especially sacred by artists, that is being undermined by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Consultative Commission on Charter Change. Art. III, Sec. 4 of the draft constitution submitted by the Consultative Commission reads thus: “No law shall be passed abridging the responsible exercise of the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

The insertion of the phrase “responsible exercise of” is very much worth noting. It is not just an exercise in semantics, it is an insertion that though brief speaks volumes.

What is meant by a “responsible” exercise of the freedom of speech and expression? Nowhere in the draft constitution can we find the answer.

But the answer lies in the statements President Arroyo has been issuing from time to time.

“Let us cast aside the ‘bad boy’ image that the press has acquired,” President Arroyo said in her speech before the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) in Baguio City last November. “Let us restore its glory as the ‘responsible son’ of a democratic nation.”

She uttered these words at a time when she was under fire from the press because of questions on the credibility of her victory in the 2004 election, because of her government’s imposition of policies making life harder and harder for Filipinos –- who mostly live below the poverty line if we go by the very statistics of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) –- and because of rampant corruption and human rights violations under her watch.

We can see that as far as President Arroyo is concerned, we “responsibly” exercise the freedom of speech and expression when we refrain from criticizing the government. For her, the “responsible” exercise of the freedom of speech and expression is to “change the topic,” to talk about The True, The Good, The Beautiful while the country drowns in a sea of wretchedness.

This is a complete mockery not only of the freedom of speech and expression, but of the very tenets of democracy.

The signs show that a crackdown on freedom of speech and expression is at hand. History tells us that it is when freedom of speech and expression is curtailed that the days of darkness descend on the people.

We survived martial law and we must not allow it to rear its head again. Let us exhaust all available means to defend the basic democratic rights for which so many of the country’s finest sons and daughters have given their lives.

Artists for the Removal of Gloria (ARREST Gloria)

Southern Tagalog Exposure
KASIBULAN Women Visual Artists’ Collective
KUMASA (Kulturang Ugnayan ng Manggagawa at Uring Anakpawis sa Timog Katagalugan)
ARTIST, Inc. (Arts Research and Training Institute in Southern Tagalog)
Kilometer 64 Poetry Group
Tambisan sa Sining
APLAYA (Artistang Pangkultura ng Mamamalakaya sa Timog Katagalugan)
UPLB Umalohokan

Paolo Martinez
Andrea Muñoz
Gian Paolo Mayuga
Jeffrey Ferrer
Onin Tagaro
Bobby Balingit
Winnie Balingit
Lourd de Veyra
Dong Abay
Ninj Abay
Con Cabrera
Roselle Pineda
Heidi Takama
Boom Dizon

We, artists, support the “Walk for Democracy” held today by civil libertarians and other human rights defenders.

Lawyer Vicky Avena, former commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), was right on the mark when she said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is building a “de facto dictatorship.” It is the height of bitter irony that just days after the country commemorated the 33rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would come up with two consecutive declarations undermining the civil liberties in the advancement and defense of which so many of our best and brightest compatriots gave their lives.

The first is the enforcement of the so-called “calibrated preemptive response” policy, which entails a strict implementation of the no permit, no rally policy provided for by Batas Pambansa Blg. 880 – a measure enacted during the days of dictatorship.

The second is Executive Order No. 464, preventing public officers from testifying in congressional investigations in aid of legislation without the President’s permission. This measure effectively bars the few principled or conscienticized among our public officers from divulging information on government activities that may be detrimental to the national interest.

To top off all of these, Arroyo is pushing for an anti-terrorism bill which, by the broadness of its definition of “terrorism,” could be construed to include even legal protest actions in its list of “terroristic activities” and makes people legally liable for simply being neighbors to suspected “terrorists.”

All this is happening in an atmosphere of unceasing political killings. The past month alone saw the killings of four activists. More than 400 persons critical of the policies of the Arroyo administration have been killed since 2001: the list includes priests, lawyers, journalists and even local government officials aside from grassroots activist leaders.

This creeping curtailment of civil liberties by a President who won in the last election by fraudulent means and has long been under fire for her imposition of anti-national and anti-people policies, corruption, and human rights violations has grave implications for artists. In an atmosphere of increasing suppression of civil liberties, a clampdown on the freedom of expression as practiced by artists cannot be far behind.

We support this activity, and commit contributions to other forthcoming efforts, for the defense of democratic rights – in the tradition of our fellow artists Amado V. Hernandez and Lino Brocka.

Artists for the Removal of Gloria (ARREST Gloria)
October 4, 2005