Today marks the 13th day of the impeachment trial versus Chief Justice Renato Corona. For us in the national youth group Anakbayan, and for a growing number of youths and students, it has already become a tiring and frustrating sight.
The noise with which the Aquino administration has hyped-up the impeachment trial as part of the ‘crusade against corruption’ sharply contrasts with their silence regarding the ‘gut issues’: tuition and other fee increases, budget cuts to social services, oil and other price hikes, demolition of communities, low wages, contractualization, etc.
How Noynoy mobilized his allies in the House of Representatives to transmit the impeachment complaint to the Senate also contrasts with the fact that important bills, like a tuition increase moratorium and the repealing of the Oil Deregulation Law, continue to gather dust.
It is clear that for the Aquino administration, the impeachment trial is simply a tactic to save itself from growing public anger against its neoliberal, pro-corporation, pro-foreigner, and anti-people policies and programs. It is not part of any sincere campaign to bring former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to justice, for there is none under Noynoy.
Yes, CJ Corona is an ‘Arroyo man’, placed to protect the former president. But he is not the main ‘stumbling block’ to bringing Gloria to justice, rather, it is the Aquino administration itself as shown by the following: the incompetence of some members of the prosecution panel, the fact that it took more than 500 days before an arrest warrant was issued against former president Gloria Arroyo, the fact that it took public outrage against her attempted escape before the warrant was issued, the filing of relatively light charges (graft, electoral sabotage) as opposed to plunder and human rights violations, and her ‘pleasant stay’ at hospital arrest.
Aside from saving his dropping popularity, the impeachment trial serves another, equally sinister purpose for Noynoy: to create a Supreme Court that will obey his every will and command. With proponents of Charter Change aiming to open up our country to more foreign capitalist plunder, a ‘friendly’ SC is certainly something that Aquino desires.
We reiterate: we have had enough of the circus that is the impeachment trial. We call on the people of the Senate, Supreme Court, and the House to tackle the ‘gut issues’. And if President Aquino wishes to stop his drop into unpopularity, he cannot do so by using the impeachment trial in the same way he uses his purported lovelife with a media personality. We demand that he address the burning concerns faced by the Filipino youth and people.
