Huwag matakot

DUMALO po ako sa paglunsad ng "BE NOT AFRAID" o "HUWAG MATAKOT" movement ni Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson noong Huwebes kung saan sinabihan niya si Madam Senyora Donya Gloria na harapin ang katotohanan at iwasang magtago sa likod ng mga "legal excuses."

Nanawagan din siya sa sambayanan na alamin ang katotohanan at tigilan na ang pagwawalang bahala sa mga isyu na hinaharap ng bansa lalo na ang Gloriagate CDs na naglalaman ng mga pag-uusap ni Comelec Commissioner Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano at Madam Senyora Donya Gloria na nagpapatunay nang malawakang pandaraya noong May 2004 election.

Matindi ang panawagang ito at naniniwala ako na dapat ngang imulat ang ating mga mata at hanapin ang katotohanan. Dahil diyan, ilalabas ko ang kopya ng speech ni Sen. Lacson.

"Clearly, the voices in the tapes were those of Mrs. Arroyo and Comm. Garcillano. Ask the man on the street who listened to the tape, and he will tell you without a voice expert’s aid that the voice is that of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Now, we know the highest officials of the land, the Comelec and government personnel mandated to protect the integrity of the electoral process including some ambition-driven members of the AFP and the PNP were involved in the conspiracy and corruption.

Of course, even Namfrel, the citizen’s last bastion of defense and hope for honest elections, is caught in the web.

Let me call on all those who may have been pressured by higher officials who joined them in cheating conspiracy to come out and tell the truth. Be not afraid. And the truth shall set you free.

Ako ay nananawagan lalung-lalo na kay Comm. Garcillano. Alam ko na ikaw ay nasa pag-aaruga ng mga tauhan ni Sec. Ebdane at isa pang grupo at ikaw ay naririto lamang sa Metro Manila. Ako ay nananawagan sa inyo, nanganganib ang inyong buhay.

If there is anyone who would want you dead, it is somebody who would be incriminated just in case you come out and speak the truth about the tapes.

If you turn a blind eye to this gravest of sins, we might as well give Mrs. Arroyo a blank check to continue the theft of whatever else rightly belongs to us, the Filipino people. If we continue to simply shrug our shoulders and go on with business as usual, then we cease to have the right to complain about corruption or to demand that our public servants stop stealing.

The time for passivity and indifference is over. Truth cannot be hidden forever by the silence of one person. Even if that person is the highest official of the land. And every citizen of this benighted republic has the right, nay the duty, to ferret out the truth, to demand the truth, to uphold the truth.

Be not afraid. John Paul II of saintly memory uttered this observation: An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie. For an excuse is a lie guarded.

All that we’ve been hearing thus far are legal excuses foisted upon the people in order to guard a lie in order to protect leadership founded upon a lie. How can decent men and women allow this?

As a first step, in order to spread the truth that has been hidden and distorted by this unauthorized government, we are setting up "Be Not Afraid" centers in key areas of the country.

These will be the places where people can freely get their copies of the CDs that the government does not want us to hear.

Let every Filipino be well-informed in his quest for the truth. Be not afraid. The truth shall set us free. And to Mrs. Arroyo, speaking for the Filipino people whom you and I have sworn to serve, whose interest you and I have sworn to uphold at all times over and above self and family, a final advice: Break your silence.

Not at some self-appointed time, but now. Not when your spin masters and propagandists say the worst has blown over, but now. Now, before every man, woman and child in this long-suffering country conclude that their own worst fears are the terrible truth. Not when they begin charging into the citadels of your power and sweep away all the institutions of a fragile democracy along with their fury," pagdidiin ni Lacson.

Nananawagan rin ako sa mga kababayan nating mas nakakaangat na pag nakakuha na kayo ng kopya ng Gloriagate CD, huwag kayo matakot at mag-burn pa kayo para ipamahagi rin sa iba.

Importante ho ang paglaganap ng katotohanan sa panahong ito dahil dapat mawakasan na ang mga pandaraya sa eleksyon upang ang mga lider na tunay na hinalal ng sambayanan ang mauupo.

Dapat nating tandaan na peke ang ating demokrasya kung ang mga nahahalal nating mga pinuno ay mga nanalo lang sa pamamagitan ng pandaraya.

Huwag Matakot, tandaan po natin. Kinabukasan po ng anak natin ang nakasalalay sa labanang ito upang ilabas ang katotohanan. HUWAG MATAKOT.

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