Philippines: Scientists tabulate: Corruption, cover ups, and lies keep adding up under GMA’s rule

Taking off their lab coats and glasswares, activist scientists are
today joining the mobilizations calling for the ouster of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Scientists and engineers from AGHAM or the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng
Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan and the broad coalition
Scientists for Truth, Scientists for Change (STSC) will be bringing
protest flasks to the mobilization commemorating the People Power
revolts today in Manila.

Corruption keeps on piling up

Government corruption scandals, AGHAM observed, have been
exponentially increasing while President Arroyo remains in power.

“It is like tabulating a non-terminating list of corruption cases,
cover ups and lies. For the past few weeks, the public has
witnessedthe revelations made by Engineer Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, Jr.
who provided credible testimony on the multi-million dollar
overpricing of the ZTE National Broadband Network deal,” said AGHAM
Chairperson Dr. Giovanni Tapang.

“Then add the unresolved scandals of this administration that it
similarly tried to quell down: the massive fraud in the elections of
2004, the Hello Garci scandal, extrajudicial killings, Proclamation
1017, charter change and widespread graft and corruption,” Dr. Tapang
said.

“This administration has gone to great lengths in violating our
rights, undermining our institutions and promoting a climate of
impunity just to stay in power. The Arroyo administration will go to
brazen lengths to silence the whistleblowers who tryto expose
corruption. Arroyo’s allies, for instance, kidnapped Lozada and are
now engaged in legal pressure as well as dirty smear tactics against
Lozada,” Dr. Tapang said.

“The Arroyo administration’s latest effort to keep hereself in power
now involves putting up surveillance cameras to monitor the opposition
and militants who are calling for her removal in office. We Filipinos
are now at greater risk of intrusion and surveillance from their very
own government with the Human Security Act also known as the
Anti-Terrorism Act. With the use of computers and other technologies,
we are now subjected to an almost constant surveillance system that
enables the government to eavesdrop on phone calls, listen for certain
keywords and track your location and activities,” Dr. Tapang said.

Gloria doesn’t know good solutions

Beyond the corruption scandals, the AGHAM Chairperson said, the Arroyo
administration has so far failed to nurture and provide for the needs
of the struggling science and technology (SnT) sector in the
Philippines.

“Gloria will not make a good chemist since she doesn’t know any good
solutions for genuine development.
Her deliberate moves to sell our national patrimony and her refusal to
build our own domestic industries has contributed to and aggravated
the exodus of talented scientists and engineers from our country,” Dr.
Tapang said.