CAP statement on GMA's midnight appointments
The Concerned Artists of the Philippines lambasts Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s latest most outrageous and unconstitutional binge on midnight appointments, which includes the removal of the entire board of the CCP, as well as the National Historical Institute and the National Museum.
GMA’s shameless and habitual circumvention of constitutional procedures takes a new level with her recent en masse appointment and replacement of officials in critical executive positions. With three months left to her corrupt regime, GMA, with her complacence over the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing her to appoint the next chief justice, has perpetuated another round of unceremonious dismissals and appointments of officials in vital government, this time on an outstandingly large scale.
Despite the fact that it has been two weeks since the pre-election constitutional ban on midnight appointees, GMA placed five new members in the board of the CCP: Antonio S. Yap, Arsenio Lizaso, Gabriel Ma. J. Lopez, Paolo Ma. Diosdado Casurao y Granados, Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa, and Lutgardo “Gardy” Abad. It is hardly surprising to find out that all of the appointees are identified with Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, the Presidential Adviser on Culture and the Arts and one of the beneficiaries of Arroyo’s moribund patronage politics in last year’s National Artist Award fiasco.
Meanwhile, Arroyo also doled out occupied positions in the National Historical Institute and the National Museum as political favors to her supporters, supplanting the seated officials who found out about their ouster only days after the start of the ban on midnight appointments. No constitutional provision could justify such barefaced acts of corruption, not even the SC ruling which, albeit allowing her to appoint the chief justice in spite of the constitutional ban on midnight appointees, does not sanction her incursions in other executive bodies.
Indeed, it appears that GMA’s barefaced ignominies in the field of culture and arts—as well as in most aspects of national governance—has not reached its peak in her shady incursions during last year’s selection process of the National Artist Award awardees. The CAP reviles these brazen acts of abuse of power, which degrades symbolic institutions of the arts into mere cover-ups for the Arroyo administration’s extensive roster of crimes.
Arroyo’s insistence on her undemocratic midnight appointments clearly shows her attempts to secure her power at this point where her blood-filled regime is coming to its final strains. What other explanation can one garner in the face of Arroyo’s consistent depravity throughout her over-extended presidential term? It is incomprehensible that these non-transparent political maneuverings could be motivated by any nationalist or democratic vision. One needs only to look at the questionable processes by which she transforms governance into whitewashed tyranny to see that she is incapable of any such vision. Indeed, the Arroyo regime has been indelibly marked by the innumerable evils she has perpetuated, conveniently censored and sugarcoated precisely by such underhanded manipulations in the ranks of symbolic, authoritative bodies.
The CAP enjoins members of the Filipino community to unite against GMA’s last-ditch efforts at perpetuating her regime of corruption and violent repression. At this point, it is no wonder that GMA should attempt to defend her unlawful midnight appointments with her own appointee on the seat of the chief justice guarding her back. However, the CAP calls upon the people of the nation not to stay silent and be vigilant against such dastardly attempts at impinging upon our freedom and democracy.
With the 2010 elections coming and GMA scrambling for the last vestiges of her political cachet, we must rise up and move to show that the Filipinos will not condone any further persistence of Arroyo’s totalitarian manipulations. The tyrannical choreographies must end here, now.
NO TO STATE REPRESSION!
STOP GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO’S EVIL REGIME!
The Concerned Artists of the Philippines lambasts Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s latest most outrageous and unconstitutional binge on midnight appointments, which includes the removal of the entire board of the CCP, as well as the National Historical Institute and the National Museum.
GMA’s shameless and habitual circumvention of constitutional procedures takes a new level with her recent en masse appointment and replacement of officials in critical executive positions. With three months left to her corrupt regime, GMA, with her complacence over the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing her to appoint the next chief justice, has perpetuated another round of unceremonious dismissals and appointments of officials in vital government, this time on an outstandingly large scale.
Despite the fact that it has been two weeks since the pre-election constitutional ban on midnight appointees, GMA placed five new members in the board of the CCP: Antonio S. Yap, Arsenio Lizaso, Gabriel Ma. J. Lopez, Paolo Ma. Diosdado Casurao y Granados, Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa, and Lutgardo “Gardy” Abad. It is hardly surprising to find out that all of the appointees are identified with Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, the Presidential Adviser on Culture and the Arts and one of the beneficiaries of Arroyo’s moribund patronage politics in last year’s National Artist Award fiasco.
Meanwhile, Arroyo also doled out occupied positions in the National Historical Institute and the National Museum as political favors to her supporters, supplanting the seated officials who found out about their ouster only days after the start of the ban on midnight appointments. No constitutional provision could justify such barefaced acts of corruption, not even the SC ruling which, albeit allowing her to appoint the chief justice in spite of the constitutional ban on midnight appointees, does not sanction her incursions in other executive bodies.
Indeed, it appears that GMA’s barefaced ignominies in the field of culture and arts—as well as in most aspects of national governance—has not reached its peak in her shady incursions during last year’s selection process of the National Artist Award awardees. The CAP reviles these brazen acts of abuse of power, which degrades symbolic institutions of the arts into mere cover-ups for the Arroyo administration’s extensive roster of crimes.
Arroyo’s insistence on her undemocratic midnight appointments clearly shows her attempts to secure her power at this point where her blood-filled regime is coming to its final strains. What other explanation can one garner in the face of Arroyo’s consistent depravity throughout her over-extended presidential term? It is incomprehensible that these non-transparent political maneuverings could be motivated by any nationalist or democratic vision. One needs only to look at the questionable processes by which she transforms governance into whitewashed tyranny to see that she is incapable of any such vision. Indeed, the Arroyo regime has been indelibly marked by the innumerable evils she has perpetuated, conveniently censored and sugarcoated precisely by such underhanded manipulations in the ranks of symbolic, authoritative bodies.
The CAP enjoins members of the Filipino community to unite against GMA’s last-ditch efforts at perpetuating her regime of corruption and violent repression. At this point, it is no wonder that GMA should attempt to defend her unlawful midnight appointments with her own appointee on the seat of the chief justice guarding her back. However, the CAP calls upon the people of the nation not to stay silent and be vigilant against such dastardly attempts at impinging upon our freedom and democracy.
With the 2010 elections coming and GMA scrambling for the last vestiges of her political cachet, we must rise up and move to show that the Filipinos will not condone any further persistence of Arroyo’s totalitarian manipulations. The tyrannical choreographies must end here, now.
NO TO STATE REPRESSION!
STOP GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO’S EVIL REGIME!
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