Bigger oppressions to come

EDITORIAL

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07/13/2008

It is disturbing for the military intelligence to serve notice that it is monitoring groups which it said is exploiting the current economic situation to try to unseat Gloria.

Gloria recently issued an executive order creating a task force to monitor the developing situation amid rising commodity and oil prices.

The task force has the intelligence service of the Armed Forces as a key component.

Gloria is apparently feeling the heat now that a greater number of Filipinos are starting to see through her complete ineffectivity in handling the problem of rising prices when she ordered Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, her former Presidential Security Command (PSC) chief, to monitor all protest groups.

What Gloria has done thus far in addressing the issue of rising prices is to farm out dole-outs to those sectors that are classified as the country’s poorest.

Nothing has been done to assure lasting relief of Filipinos from rising prices.

Prestoza said it is within the mandate of the intelligence service to monitor groups allied with the Communist party and the New People’s Army (NPA) or groups which continue to exploit the issue.

Claiming such a mandate, Prestoza has the responsibility of explaining to the nation just what qualifies somebody to be monitored by the military.

The term “affiliated” with the insurgency movement is too broad a term that may encompass anybody who is not satisfied with how Gloria is running the government.

By that criterion alone, the military can claim the right to monitor nearly all of the nation since recent independent surveys showed that as much as 80 percent of the voting population have lost confidence in Gloria.

While it is already a given that the intelligence service has been spying on Gloria’s critics --- including engaging in partisan activities, such as illegally wiretapping conversations of Gloria’s political foes, Prestoza telling reporters that Gloria had ordered stepped up monitoring on protesting groups appears to be laying the groundwork for a crackdown on her critics.

The intelligence chief said the monitoring activities are related to soaring rice and oil prices being exploited to create unrest, “or to incite riots.”

Such a motive belongs to a gray area that could brand anybody complaining about rising prices and Gloria not doing enough to solve this as being a communist and therefore a suspected destabilizer, to use Malacañang’s favorite term.

The political opposition is particularly vulnerable for such a sweeping tag, particularly individuals or groups that have consistently criticized Gloria.

It is during hard times that the worst form of state oppression happens and the recent directive of Gloria giving the intelligence service greater leeway on intruding into the privacy of most Filipinos supposedly in the name of maintaining order raises, if not revives, the fear last experienced during the Martial Law period.

Tagging somebody a communist is similar to identifying a terrorist. They both fall under what US President George W. Bush notoriously described as somebody being “either with us or against us.”

Anybody criticizing Gloria risks being tagged an affiliate of insurgents and is a candidate for monitoring by the government.

With clearly all Filipinos who still care for the future of this country having an issue against Gloria, the recent order to monitor possible sources of unrest can cover just about anybody.

The order was issued clearly out of Gloria’s political insecurity.

Still, despite that order issued to the military spy group to monitor political developments and the rise in food and fuel prices, it has to be asked: Are the monitoring and surveillance of those whom Gloria and state spies brand as “communists” taking advantage of the situation legal?

There is a law against wiretapping illegally and unless Prestoza and his spies do it the legal way, they may just be in for a lot of trouble — once Gloria and her cabal leave Malacañang.

History had already proven that the state intensifying efforts to oppress those critical to the incumbent leader leads only to more joining the protestors’ ranks.

Gloria’s order could even become the catalyst of her own downfall.

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