NY ‘rats’ to hound GMA

WASHINGTON — Opponents of President Arroyo are planning to have ‘rats’ trail her whenever she goes out in public in New York in an attempt to embarrass and humiliate her.

The so-called rats or "rapid action teams" will carry placards calling on Mrs. Arroyo to resign when she attends the World Summit on Sept. 14-16 at the New York headquarters of the United Nations.

The President will be among more than 150 heads of state or government expected to attend the summit to consider some of the most sweeping changes in the United Nations in its 60-year existence.

In Manila, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the President may use the UN stage to send a reconciliation message to her political foes or answer possible questions about the recent vote in Congress that dismissed impeachment charges against her "if the need arises."

Romulo, who is ready to answer queries from his counterparts and world leaders who might ask about the impeachment process in the House, said Mrs. Arroyo’s emphasis would still be on reconciliation.

"If the need arises and she wants," he said. "Reconciliation is one of (the points) in her 10-point agenda."

The stateside protests against her are being organized by a number of leftist or "pro-people" groups including the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Bayan USA, an offshoot of AnakBayan, Gabriela Philippines, the New York-based Philippine Forum and the New York Coalition for Gloria’s Ouster.

Bernadette Ellorin, one of the organizers of the demonstrations, said they would try to highlight the "illegitimacy" of Mrs. Arroyo’s rule, especially now that her allies in the House of Representatives have killed an impeachment effort against her.

The House voted to throw out opposition charges Arroyo rigged last year’s election in her favor.

Ellorin disputed Manila newspaper reports that Filipinos were apathetic to another people power revolt to oust Arroyo and said the masses were just waiting for the right time to take their case to the streets.

Virtually the same groups denounced the extravagant lifestyle of then President Joseph Estrada during a visit to New York in 2000 and demanded his ouster, calling him a "US puppet."

In addition to the three to four teams of about 20 protesters determined to dog Mrs. Arroyo wherever she goes, bigger demonstrations against her are planned in front of the Philippine Consulate on Sept. 15 and 16 at 6:00 p.m.

Over the past few weeks the Internet has been humming with email exchanges among anti-Arroyo factions in the various parts of the US and the Philippines, firming up efforts to force her to resign.

Her opponents claim many Filipinos in the US are against Arroyo but don’t want to be associated too much with the protest movement, afraid that if she survives she’ll get back at them.

Her supporters however dismiss this claim as a ready-made excuse for an expected poor turnout which, at best, could prove to be more of a nuisance than a real threat to her presidency.

The President’s address before world leaders during the UN General Assembly was criticized Tuesday in Manila by a non-government organization even before she faces her counterparts in the UN next week.

Former national treasurer Leonor Briones, meanwhile, said that Mrs. Arroyo has no credibility to address world leaders during the UNGA in New York because her own mandate is in question.

During the forum on the 2005 Millennium Summit Agenda at the New World Hotel in Makati City, Briones criticized the government’s Philippine Millennium Development Goal report that will be presented during the 60th General Assembly next week by the National Economic and Development Authority.

Briones, organizer of the non-government organization Social Watch and formerly with the Freedom from Debt Coalition, said that the government’s report falls short of the UN development goals because of current economic, social and political conditions in the country.

She will also speak before the UN General Assembly after the President to discuss the civil society’s concerns like the fiscal crisis, governance and accountability and the government’s compliance to and progress on the Millennium Development Goal.

The Philippines is again at the center of the world stage as it formally assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council.

Manila presides over the UNSC for the entire month of September and it is the second time in its two-year term as an elected member that it will oversee the work of the UN’s most critical body. — With Pia Lee-Brago