Snap polls to oust GMA planned

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Critics of President Arroyo will reportedly launch a nationwide signature campaign to call for a snap election to oust her.

Supporters of Mrs. Arroyo in this province have obtained a copy of two sets of documents detailing the alleged plot.

The first document contains five pages: “People Power through the Stop Now Arroyo’s Plunder (SNAP) Election: An Urgent Constitutional Solution to the Present Leadership Crisis.”

The second three-page document, “Concept of SNAP,” was apparently an introduction to the first document with attached signatures.

“SNAP will be a signature campaign exactly or nearly exactly like the signature campaign launched by Gov. Eddie Panlilio’s enemies against him in Pampanga,” read the document.

“It will call for the recall of GMA (Arroyo) on the ground of illegitimacy. It will go on to call for snap presidential elections to solve the problem of illegitimacy.”

The first document, detailing legal processes that could lead to snap elections, contained the signatures of 33 people and the organizations they purportedly represent. 

The signatories included one Jun Lozada, who left blank the space for his organization and one Fr. Joe Dizon, who identified his organization as Solidarity Phils.

The other signatories named their organizations as UMDJ, Concerned Citizens Movement, Catholic Lay Preachers Association of the Phils., Ang Karapatan, Bayan, KMLG and NUSP.

Mrs. Arroyo’s supporters, who asked not to be named, said they have furnished Malacañang with copies of the documents.

The writer of the introductory document cited two justifications for a snap election.

“One, it takes an offensive rather than defensive stance” and “two, the capacity of Senate hearings like the current ones on Jocjoc Bolante and the euro generals to stoke the public outrage and do something about malfeasance has become increasingly suspect,” read the document.

“The hearings alone cannot rouse the people to outrage or action. But a signature campaign to recall GMA can and will heighten the drama of the hearings and extend their possibilities.”

The document also gave eight advantages of a signature campaign.

“It has a sense of urgency,” read the document. “ It to accomplish something now rather than later.”

Malacañang will mount a counter-signature campaign to show that Mrs. Arroyo is beloved by the poor and the rural folk, much like President Marcos, according to the second document.

The first document said based on a Supreme Court decision “institutionalized people power in law-making, a people’s initiative can be launched to amend the Constitution to shorten Mrs. Arroyo’s term to May 10, 2009 to pave the way for snap elections.

“Resort to constitutional amendment calling for a popular vote on the incumbency of the Chief Executive avoids all sorts of questions that may be raised about the continued democratic propriety of yet another popular uprising to force an incumbent President out of office,” read the document.

“Where people formerly speak of ‘people power fatigue,’ they may now see in the SNAP election a creative if not an empowering political process that we well promise to lay the groundwork for a future people’s congress.”