Contemporary Philippine Politics, Part 1
A video I made on why President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) should resign. All statistics listed are from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), The Philippine Department of Labor, the Philippine National Statistics Office, the Philippine Inquirer, and the US State Department. History: In 2001, after a coup, then Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an economist by trade, was propelled to the presidency. In 2003, she had promised on Jose Rizal's grave that she would not seek election in 2004. 6 months later, she did-- and the country has suffered for it. Since that time, over 10,000 people have been incarcerated for "sedition" and "acts of terrorist against the state" and another 800 have disappeared including prominent pastors, student leaders, union representatives and indigenous rights activists. The Congress, controlled by her party and even less liked than GMA, has rejected no less than 3 impeachment resolutions. In addition, calls have been made by a number of Roman Catholic and Epsicopal bishops, the Carmelites, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and other religious for the president to resign and going as fas as referring to her as "chief executive" and not president (since she cheated in the 2004 which has been documented by the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference). Since 2005, she has called for a Constitutional Assembly (Con-Ass) to change the constitution so she can maintain power longer than when her term expires in 2010. In 2007, she announced a return of the Spanish language to the Philippines--though it was never widely spoken since our revolution against Spain in 1896 and abolished in favor of Tagalog, a rich native language. In addition, Transparency International, a German independent watchdog, has named the Philippines the 10th most corrupt nation in the world (from 47th before 2001) and the Social Weather Service, an independent American watchdog, has said that 2/3 of Filipinos consider GMA "the most corrupt president in history" outranking Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Those that fought against Marcos--Filipino, Filipino-Americans and other nationalities--should watch this president and Filipinos should join calls for her to step down.