Revotelution

An article in today’s issue of Los Angeles Times dramatically highlights what is wrong with national leadership of the Philippines. Mrs. Gloria M. Arroyo, the de-facto ruler, if not the despot, of the Philippines has been spending tens of billions of pesos (amounting to hundreds of millions in American greenbacks) visiting tens of foreign countries, which have no meaningful cultural and/or business ties with the Philippines. While Mrs. Arroyo travels as if there is no tomorrow and money is going out of style, poverty, ignorance and social cancers like government corruption, illegal gambling, prohibited drugs, prostitution (especially involving hundreds of thousands of child prostitutes) continue to rear their ugly heads in the homeland.

Philippine bridge dwellers gird for even harder times 

Or copy and paste to your browser, this URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-philippines-bridge14-2009jul14,0,1316555.story 

Our ReVOTElution.com columnist, Mar L. Tecson, has stated in his series on Philippine-government corruption, that “at least P1.3-trillion (about $25-billion) in public revenue were lost due to fraudulent practices of some government officials and agencies from 2001 to 2005.” The $25-billion lost to corruption happened during the watch of Mrs. Arroyo. To read the two parts serialized so far of Mr. Tecson’s position paper, please go to:

How to Fight Corruption in Philippine Setting

Perhaps Filipino-American community leaders and the Filipino-American press should write President Obama and request him to confront Mrs. Arroyo about the following issues, among the numerous scandals that have bugged the Arroyo Dispensation:

1.0    Human-rights violations by the Philippine government such as extra-judicial killings of activists, political opponents and media practitioners.

2.0    Theft of American military-and-economic aid to the Philippines.

3.0   The militarization of the Philippine government with the appointment of dozens of retired military and police generals to Cabinet, diplomatic and bureaucratic posts.

4.0    Money-laundering activities of Mrs. Arroyo and her family, as evidenced by their huge lost investments in Lehman Brothers and AIG.

5.0   The use of Philippine ports as trans-shipment points for the movement of illegal drugs from Southeast Asia to the United States. There are media documentation on the roles of the Philippine military and police in the proliferation of illegal drugs and banned substances in the Philippines and their exports to other countries such as the United States. And

6.0    For President Obama to solicit from Mrs. Arroyo a public statement to the American public and the American press that she will allow the holding of the Philippine presidential, congressional and local elections on May 10, 2010, and that she will not run for a congressional seat in her home province of Pampanga, so she could be the first Prime Minister, if the country adopts the parliamentary system of government – under her cunning, if not diabolical plan.