Chiz Escudero

Corruption and wasteful extravagance should be blamed for the rising national debt that had reached P3.908 trillion as of November 2006.

The foreign debt has gone so much that 71 percent of the gross domestic product is now needed to service it.  President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in 2004, admitted as much when she cited interest and capital payments as justification for the imposition of additional taxes.

Despite the already huge amount of foreign and domestic debts, the government intends to borrow more this year, $2.466 billion from foreign creditors and P260.1 billion from local sources.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the money goes to priority projects. But that is not the case.

A great portion is dissipated in projects whose only purpose is to give corrupt officials an opportunity to enrich themselves. An example is the construction of bridges that lead to nowhere.

I acknowledged that foreign debt servicing has gone down to $5.63 billion this year from $7.1 billion last year. Still, the amount is a burden that could very well lead to economic collapse.

To prevent that eventuality, there is an urgent need to change this government, which seems to have developed an addiction to the quick fix represented by borrowing. And the installation by the electorate of a different set of legislators is a good start. 

I vow I would move for a review of the government’s borrowing policy if the opposition gets to dominate Congress after the mid-term elections.

There is need to review the law allowing the president to borrow money without congressional approval. The people ultimately bear the burden of paying back the capital and servicing onerous interest requirements. It is only logical that they, through their representatives in Congress, are consulted on the matter.

Administration candidates should face the voters and not to rely on local government officials to deliver the votes.

The strategy adopted by the administration to rely on command vote to ensure victory for its candidates is laughable. The people will vote for candidates according to qualifications and principles.

The administration believes local government officials need only tell the electorate who to vote for, but that election strategy is a thing of the past. People now have a mind of their own.

In contrast, we in the Genuine Opposition go directly to the people and discuss the issues. And we do that because we have nothing to be afraid of, unlike Team Unity candidates.

The administration should go to the grassroots. That way, they would not be so ignorant of the sentiments of the people.

Bumaba sila sa masa para makita nila kung ano ang nangyayari sa ibaba. Hindi yong ipapatawag lang nila ang mga mayor at gobernador. Ito ay nanngangahulugan ng kawalang respeto sa mga mamamayan.

I doubted too the sincerity of the Unity candidates for flip-flopping and giving conditions before engaging in a public debate challenged by the GO.

Bakit kailangan pang magpaalam ng Team Unity kay GMA na lalahok sila sa debate?. At bakit bawal pag-usapan ang ilang bagay, tulad ng sunod-sunod na pagpatay sa mga ipinapalagay na kaaway ng administrasyon?

The debate should be conducted freely so that issues would be answered and for the public’s awareness and understanding of the stand of both parties.

Kapag ikaw ang sasabak sa ring, dapat handa kang sagutin ang kahit anong uri ng suntok.

I dare the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to accept the offer of help from the US Government to solve extrajudicial killings in the country. Such move will dispel
suspicions that the death squads that conducted the assassinations, involving
mostly leftist militants as victims, are under its employ.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney made the offer at a talk with
defense reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

The US Government is unyielding in its determination to bring erring military
personnel to justice for crimes committed against defenseless civilians, exactly
what the AFP and the Philippine National Police are being accused of.

The US military justice system is replete with examples of court-martials and
convictions of officers and soldiers who deviated from acceptable military conduct,
from Lt. William Calley, leader of a platoon that killed hundreds of old men, women,
children and babies in My Lai, Vietnam, to Sgt. Paul Cortez, member of an airborne
division, who along with four other soldiers raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in
Iraq.

But I doubted that anything good could come out of the offer, as the AFP has
become notorious for stonewalling the issue instead of doing something about it.

I dismiss claims by the military that the extrajudicial executions were the handiwork
of leftist groups. The trouble with this line is that it assumes the victims were
agents of the military and the rebels executed them to exact retribution. The
military does not even make an attempt to supply evidence to support the
allegations.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. called the crimes mysterious killings, not extrajudicial
executions.

It is a spin that does not give justice to the hundreds of victims.

Federico Esclares Jr., president of Association of Barangay Captains (ABC), was shot in the head by a lone gunman in a restaurant last month. Also killed was his driver and another man whose identity has yet to be established.

I demand the immediate relief of all officials of the Philippine National Police in Region V, from Regional Director Ricardo Padilla to Sorsogon Provincial Director Joel Regondola and Pilar Police Chief Dionisio Laceda.

The local police have failed in their duty to protect the people, with criminals picking their targets with impunity.

The region, including Sorsogon, has long been in the grip of terror, and there seems to be no end in sight for the suffering population. The murder of the barangay captain, like similar crimes in the past, has stumped the police.

I refuse to believe that the death squads are under the employ of the military and the police, but the fact that no suspects have been arrested makes that conclusion inevitable.

The killings occur with disturbing regularity not only in Sorsogon but in other parts of the country. Under the present government, more than 820 leaders, members, and supporters of militant groups have been killed.

And most victims, if not all, shared one thing in common. They were all critical of the administration.

My colleagues and I have filed House Resolution 1030 following the killing of a Bayan Muna official in Sorsogon in November 2005. 

The resolution, which seeks to investigate the possible involvement of the military and the police in the crimes, however, remains pending in the Committee on National Defense and Security.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is pouring funds to capture the Senate in the May 14 election, while preparing the groundwork for the abolition of that institution.

But the electorate is not easily fooled. That is precisely the reason why people give opposition candidates a warm welcome wherever they go.

“The unity spin” of the administration could no way reconcile the diametrically opposed views of its candidates. That is, unless the candidates themselves have already abandoned their principles for the sake of unlimited campaign funds.

I won’t be surprised if Team GMA adopts the battle cry “unity in diversity’. But that is to pay the electorate the greatest insult. Its candidates hold views that are different from one another as night from day.

All candidates of the Genuine Opposition (GO) are to a man against Presidential Decree 1017, Executive 464, and the infamous Calibrated Pre-Emptive Response, all of which seek to deny the people their right to peaceful assembly and to hide the rot of corruption that is at the heart of the present government.

Most important of all, my colleagues and I fought attempts to amend the Constitution through the so-called People’s Initiative and to railroad a bill calling for Constitutional Assembly, which has for its primary purpose the abolition of the Senate.

A number of the administration candidates, as their individual records would show, were with the opposition in the fight. I am thus wondering if they would now work for the abolition of the Senate.

But the situation is not as bad for those who are for the abolition of the Senate all along.

They are coming before the electorate with dirty hands. How could they, in good conscience, ask people to elect them to the Senate when they spurn that institution?

I am commending Chief Justice Reynato Puno for the creation of a special court that will handle extrajudicial killings.

It is high time that the judicial branch of the government should do something to hasten resolution of the cases to give justice to the victims and their families and send the culprits to jail.

The creation of the special court was made following a meeting of Puno with members of the United Nations team looking into the killing of militant activists and media men in the Philippines.

The Supreme Court also directed the court administrator to submit an inventory of extrajudicial killing cases. The high court wants to determine the reasons for the delay in resolving the cases.

Under the Arroyo regime, more than 820 members, leaders and supporters of militant groups and people’s organizations were reported to have been killed.