The Arroyo regime’s lies on oil, Macarambon and the Glorietta blast

The holidays are not spared by the Arroyo regime’s unceasing acts of lying.

Take a look at what Ignacio Bunye says in this report:

The runaway price of oil is beyond the government’s control. This serves as a continuing wake up call for all sectors that there are more things to attend to othar than relentless politics of personal destruction. More than ever, now is the time to pool our collective patriotic efforts to intensify the search and development of alternative energy sources, as well as provide the appropriate legal environment to accelerate such initiatives

Oil prices used to be controlled by government because it is an important, socially-sensitive resource. Despite promises that prices will go down due to competition and greater foreign access to the Philippine market, local oil prices have skyrocketed to levels unimaginable since the Oil Deregulation Law was passed and implemented. This law has become a license for legalized transfer-pricing, overpricing and other questionable practices documented extensively by Ibon Foundation and oil industry observer Prof. Danny Arao.

The rampaging prices of oil cannot be tinkered with only under the doctrine of rampaging, unbridled globalization. But this man-made monster, authored no less by our own legislators, should be reexamined and perhaps repealed. The promises of low prices have never materialized and we have lost control, the state has lost control, of oil and it is spelling disaster for the people, especially the hardworking Pinoy workers, farmers, small and medium scale businesses, and practically everyone else except the oligopolists in the oil industry and their defenders in both public and private sectors.

State ownership of oil companies is not a really bad idea. According to the World Investment Report 2007, there are now a number of state-owned petroleum companies making a mark in the world market and sending shockwaves down the spines of people who worship at the altar of globalization. It is just an absolutely fallacy to say the government can’t do anything.

In another instance, Bunye also says:

In the interest of fair play, we appeal to critics to refrain from shooting first and asking questions later in the matter of the appointment of Commissioner Moslemen Macarambon

Bunye is speaking as though the Arroyo regime still has an ounce of credibility and integrity intact! Of course, the public is wary of the appointments Mrs. Arroyo makes. Just look at Arroyo appointee Benjamin Abalos Sr. who departed from the Comelec as perhaps the worst briber this side of the Pacific. Serious questions arose from the recent appointment of Judge Moslemen Macarambon not simply because he is a relative unknown but because the public, people’s organizations and the political opposition are wary of how he was chosen, who were behind his nomination and appointment, and other relevant and legitimate questions.

We don’t have a quarrel with the President’s power in appointing officials. But we have to contend that we have a President whose legitimacy remains under question and allegedly helped in no small way by the Commission on Elections to steal the presidency in 2004. The Comelec is so important in ensuring clean elections in the future that there is wisdom in earlier calls that public consultations be held by the regime to solicit opinions and nominations directly from the people.

The fallacies behind Bunye’s statement? He wants us to accept Arroyo’s presidency and everything it does hook line and sinker despite evidence that it is a bogus one. Also, it is as if the people do not have any right to dispute any official act of the regime. Thirdly, in classic black propaganda move, derides critics through name calling. Bunye and his ilk in the Arroyo regime should be more careful next time in confronting critics. They must respect opinions contrary to the official line.

Perhaps one that takes the cake is how the Arroyo regime is painstakingly explaining away the explosion at Glorietta.

Listen to Arroyo’s executive secretary Eduardo Ermita:

…we are happy, from my point of view as chairman of the anti-terrorism council, that this cannot be attributed to terrorism because that would be a major development, it will affect our economy, our standing in the world community, our international investors

In the same report, Ermita also says that

… the national police, as well as experts from Australia, the United States and Israel, all agreed that the blast did not appear to be caused by a bomb as originally feared

First of all, it was the PNP Chief Avelino who fanned suspicions by announcing on Oct. 20 in a press conference in Camp Crame that:

Chemical analysts have identified the chemical RDX as present in the blast site

Stratfor echoes the PNP report:

The bomb used in the Oct. 19 blast at a shopping mall in Manila, the Philippines, contained RDX, a chemical component in C4, an explosive used by the military, police said Oct. 20 in a report to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Wikipedia says RDX is a chemical explosive widely used for military and industrial applications and is “considered one of the most powerful and brisant of the military high explosives”. India Today explains how it was introduced and used in that subcontinent.

Other high officials of the Arroyo regime also helped in no small way in hardening public opinion on the explosion. Look at these statements by acting Justice Sec. Agnes Devanadera and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales:

The media and the public just took off from these official statements, and we are not at all amused that the government has failed to publicly solicit the opinions of our own local experts from the University of the Philippines who are quite vocal in disputing the theories put forward by the investigators.

Of course, we need not focus on what Mrs. Arroyo herself said immediately after the bombing. She really used the sorry incident to hit her critics, and that left a bad taste in the mouth among those of us who heard Mrs. Arroyo say:

I warn those who seek to destabilize our government not to exploit this incident for their selfish political motives.

and she did so even before expressing her sympathies to families of those who died, and those who were injured.

It was rather obvious that Palace spin doctors wanted to twist and misinterpret the explosion to favor Arroyo. Now, we see the spectacle of these same shady characters eating their words, offering no apologies for their insane initial statements, and berating the public for exercising our freedom of speech based on what was then the only information available.