HK OFWs, outraged with ‘forgive-and-forget appeal’

Press Release
28 June 2005

Reference: Dolores Balladares
Chairperson
Tel. No.: (852) 97472986, (852) 28104379


HK OFWs, outraged with ‘forgive-and-forget appeal’
“Oust GMA” campaign abroad pushes through

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has no more moral, legal or political right to stay in office. There’s no way for her to go but out of Malacañang.

This was declared by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) after Mrs. Arroyo finally admitted yesterday in public that she was indeed the woman in the very controversial “Hello, Garci” recorded conversation.

“After a long silence, the people’s pressure and the mounting call to oust her from office has succeeded in putting Mrs. Arroyo to the defense and make her scramble for excuses to extricate herself from the mess she made,” said Dolores Balladares, UNIFIL-HK chairperson.

However, the UNIFIL – the group that led the protest action during Mrs. Arroyo’s recent visit to HK – was far from appeased by Mrs. Arroyo’s admission.

“Up to now, she is trying to hoodwink the Filipino people by not admitting that she cheated though she has already claimed that she was the woman in the tape. We will not be taken in by such an obvious ploy to rally the emotions of the people without questioning what is just and right,” Balladares added.

Additionally, Balladares also scored Mrs. Arroyo’s appeal for unity in the face of what happened.

“It is disgusting and condemnable. If she wants the Filipino people to accept an illegitimate, cheat, and fake president, she’s grossly mistaken. Each day that Mrs. Arroyo stays in Malacañang is an insult to the Filipino people,” Balladres said.

According to Balladares, Mrs. Arroyo is trying to manipulate the Filipino people by apparently taking the moral and political high grounds. She said that Mrs. Arroyo’s “underdog, forgive and forget appeal” is a farce and a sly move to veer away from the issue of her accountability to the crime she committed against the Filipinos.

“Mere apology will not change the fact that we’ve been fooled for more than a year. A million sorry will not change the fact that Mrs. Arroyo’s manipulations have disenfranchised the Filipinos, including OFWs who voted for the first time overseas,” Balladares stressed.

The UNIFIL said that Mrs. Arroyo’s declaration that her call to the COMELEC official, believed to be Commissioner Garcilllano, was merely a “lapse in judgment” is “nonsensical and a mere ‘palusot’ (way out)”.

“Such a lame excuse for a very big crime! If this is how she plans to answer the other anomalies besieging her including the ‘jueteng payola’ scandal, she is blatantly insulting the intelligence of the public,” the group stated.

Balladares affirmed that her group shall continue to drumbeat the campaign to oust Mrs. Arroyo. She pledged to rally thousands of Filipino migrants in the coming weeks, especially for Mrs. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Only Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster shall calm the outcry of the people. The only responsible thing for her to do now is to step down – or be ousted,” Balladares concluded.#