Sanlakas: Government zequally corrupt

The militant group Sanlakas said the Arroyo administration is only about 10 months old yet it is rocked by the same issue that caused the downfall of the past administration – graft and corruption.

In a big rally of some 20,000 workers and urban poor held in Mendiola yesterday afternoon to commemorate the 129th birthday of the great plebeian hero Andres Bonifacio, the militant group declared the Arroyo administration as "a failure", saying it is becoming as "equally corrupt" as the past administrations.

"GMA might even end up more corrupt than Erap as bigger scams and scandals are being exposed left and right in her 10-month-old administration," Sanlakas national president Wilson Fortaleza said.

Sanlakas also accused the Arroyo administration of "wanton puppetry" to America, the International Monetary Fund-World Bank and World Trade Organization while ignoring the plight of the poor people.

Fortaleza, said that while the term "equally corrupt" is still arguable, the point is that the GMA administration, this early, "has already lost its moral ascendancy to speak of graft-free government, much more of new politics."

GMA, her husband Mike Arroyo, and other people close to the First Couple are now embroiled in many allegations of scams such as the telecom scam, the misuse of PCSO funds, the IMPSA deal, and now the controversial compromise agreement struck with Danding Cojuanco and Maria Clara Lobregat on the coco levy fund, said Fortaleza.

"These scams," he said, "involve billions of kickbacks from contracts and public funds that are allegedly being channeled to the coffer of the First Couple."

"The only difference this time is the (bigger) amounts of money involved and there seems to be more Chavits doing the exposé," Fortaleza said. "Thea old syndicates in Malacañang were simply replaced by new ones," he added. "Malacañang has denied all the allegations that GMA is involved in these scams. But persistent reports and exposés have almost become an irrepressible forest fire that cannot simply be dismissed ."

Fortaleza said they fully support the call for a speedy, full and impartial investigation of these cases, either by Congress or by independent commissions. – Romel Bagares