The sound of a dying presidency

More than 500,000 folks have visited the TXTPower website since we first made available the scandalous Hello Garci ringtone.

Filipinos continue to have fun with the now 27 remixes of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s “a lapse of judgment”, a grossly inaccurate term she has used to describe no less than 16 calls she made to Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano while the nation was awaiting the results of the counting of votes in the 2004 elections.

A few days ago, a new ringtone dubbed “I’m sorry” made its way to us and consequently to our website. This time, the “I’m sorry” comes from Mrs. Arroyo’s pseudo-apology and was set to the tune of the melodramatic song “Tuliro”.

The “Hello Garci” and “I’m sorry” ringtones are fast becoming the sound of a dying bogus presidency.

Because inasmuch as Mrs. Arroyo would like to capitalize on her own apology to worm herself out of the terrible mess she is in, the situation today is one of uncertainty and certainty. Mrs. Arroyo’s stay in power is now uncertain. Her resignation or forcible removal from power, a certainty.

She let 22 days pass since her own spokesperson broke the news about the Hello Garci tapes, gave out such copies to the media and the public and made innumerable lies to cover up her voice and her crime. Her apology last week as truly incomplete, belated and unacceptable.

The opposition has called for her resignation. So has three Catholic bishops who have long criticized her for selling out the economy to foreign interests (a friendly term for imperialism). The progressive mass movement has upped the ante of protests. A cabinet member said to be a tax evader has quit and so did Arroyo’s former nationl security adviser-turned-congressman. In Congress, the Hello Garci tapes have been played during official proceedings. Several big protests have been mounted. Anti-Arroyo jokes are proliferating. T-shirts poking fun at Arroyo and her husband are selling briskly. Cultural groups are having a field day composing and performing new protest songs.

On the same day she announced the exile of her husband, Ms. Susan Roces Poe stood up and spoke from the heart: Mrs. Arroyo must resign now. She has shamed the nation by stealing the presidency and disrespecting the memory of our forebears who fought for our right to be a free nation.

As of this time, more than a thousand are at the TXTPower website, downloading ringtones that are fast becoming the sound of the death knell for this blasted regime.