NR0708: Pro-GMA camp's counter-attacks futile

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release July 07, 2005

Garcillano, PGMA handlers' counter-accusations against
the opposition mere diversionary tactics; GMA's days
in office numbered

Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran today said
that it was evident that Comelec commissioner Virgilio
Garcillano was not allowed to speak to the media
previously because Pres. Macapagal-Arroyo's political
handlers and spin-doctors were hatching a
counter-attack plan against the offensive of the
president's critics.

"Clearly the game plan is to discredit the opposition
and to slander them with the same accusations that
they also spoke with Garcillano during the height of
the May 2004 elections," he said. "The president's
tacticians are crossing their fingers that the mud
that now sticks like glue to the president will also
stick to members of the opposition whose names are now
being dragged in the electoral fraud mess."

"This is a diversionary tactic that will inevitably
fail. Garcillano's credibility, like the president's,
is not to be believed. He kept his silence for the
longest time and the playing of the tapes has revealed
his most damning communications are with the
president."

Beltran said that pro-administration solons should not
yet heave a sigh of relief. "Their president is not
safe yet, and her days in Malacañang are already
numbered. Other politicians and candidates whose names
Garcillano are now deliberately dropping with the
intent to discredit them can clear their own names and
state what truly transpired - if anything did- in
their alleged talks with Garcillano. Public attention
is still focused on the president. She is the highest
executive of the land, and her blatant disregard for
the law is what's gotten most Filipinos outraged."

"And what's more, if latest surveys are correct, a
massive 61% percent of Filipinos are of the opinion
that the country would be better off without Pres.
Arroyo at the helm. Pres. Arroyo is a lame-duck
president, and she's hanging on to her position by the
skin of her teeth. The protests against her will
continue to escalate despite all attempts to pacify
the public and to divert the public's attention to the
members of the opposition who also allegedly committed
the same crime as the president.

Finally, the veteran labor leader turned legislator
said that the attacks of pro-Arroyo solons against
Minority leader Francis Escudero were pathetic.
"Clearly, Rep. Escudero is something of a difficult
handful for the pro-Arroyo lawmakers and so they're
focusing their coordinated attacks against him. Rep.
Escudero's credibility can and will survive these
attacks intact. His explanations are more believable
than any of all the excuses made by the president."#