Individual opposition to President Arroyo

A provincial school invited President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be its commencement speaker. While Pres. Arroyo was delivering her speech, one of the graduating students got up and demanded that she step down from office. Unperturbed, President Macapagal Arroyo continued her speech as if nothing had happened. Later, the graduating student even went up the stage to receive her diploma.

To us, this is a very disappointing incident. The very first thing we learned in school during our time was Good Manners and Right Conduct. What happened in that graduation was the complete opposite. It was Bad Manners and Wrong Conduct. The school cannot be blamed for what happened. How can a school be held to account for the misbehavior of an individual student? But those in charge of security should have taken the girl outside as soon as she shouted "Gloria Step Down." Instead, they even allowed her to go upstage to get her diploma. Now, she has already graduated so the school has no disciplinary authority over her.

What the incident reveals is the fact that there is no organized opposition to GMA’s administration to this day. So far, those who oppose the GMA regime have limited their activities to street rallies asking for the President to step down. It has not flourished because they cannot even say why she should step down. If there is a case against her, then constitutionally, she should be impeached. The impeachment case filed against her did not prosper. And so far, there seem to be no charges against her with evidence that will stand up in court.

The truth is that to this time, the opposition has no political figure that represents the opposition. There are many who oppose GMA but not a single one has come out with his own program. At most, they talk of a transition government.

So long as the opposition is limited to such incidents as one graduating student demanding that GMA step down from office, GMA is more than super-secure in office. The word oppositionist should not even be used for such people. The proper word for them is heckler.

Oppositionists should bring out issues against the President. And the proper venue for them is the court. We have a Constitution and we should abide by it.

We should not use private events to demand that any political figure step down from his duly appointed or elected office. Graduation exercises should be held to honor the graduates. It has nothing to do with public officials. We hope that schools will take some precautionary measures to ensure that what happened to GMA in a school graduation does not happen to any of their future guest speakers.