The video documentaries produced by Malacañang’s propaganda mill which were shown on government-controlled television stations over the weekend maliciously labeled all critics of the GMA regime as either communists or extreme rightists. These videos are reminiscent of Marcos’s propaganda spin intended to justify martial law or the suppression of all basic freedoms, by whipping up the anti-communist hysteria --- an old McCarthyist line of the cold war era.
In the video documentary and in a diagram publicized by PNP, Laban ng Masa and its affiliate organization Sanlakas were portrayed as part of the so-called “leftist-and-rightist conspiracy” to topple the Arroyo regime.
We vehemently deny involvement in any coup plot or any imagined conspiracy that Mrs. Arroyo is peddling around to justify a continued crackdown on all her critics.
Laban ng Masa believes that the lifting of PP 1017 proves to be nominal as the threat of a clampdown on media and warrantless arrests continues to be dangled by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales like a Damocles sword hanging above the people’s heads. Lifting PP 1017 does not absolve Mrs. Arroyo and her stooges in government like Gonzales of their gross violation of the constitutional guarantees to basic rights such as the freedom of the press and the right to peaceful assembly.
Eighty percent of Filipinos want GMA out and almost all sectors of society have voiced out opposition to her regime of deceit, fraud and lies. PP 1017 failed to muzzle this widespread discontent. The overwhelming majority of Filipinos don’t need to conspire against an utterly unpopular and illegitimate regime. If there is any conspiracy at all, it is that being cooked up by Mrs. Arroyo and her handful of stooges in Malacañang to entrench themselves in power by all means.
Dr. FRANCISCO NEMENZO
Chairperson, LABAN NG MASA
LABAN NG MASA
March 6, 2006