Protest staged as Arroyo visits Hong Kong

First posted 04:48pm (Mla time) June 20, 2005
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

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CALLING President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a coward, some 30 Filipino workers protested during the President's visit to Hong Kong Monday as they called on Arroyo to break her silence on a controversial recording that allegedly shows she cheated in the last presidential elections.

Dolores Balladares, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, criticized Arroyo for failing to meet with the overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong.

“Even here [in Hong Kong], she has proved a coward [when it comes to facing] the Filipino people who need an explanation from her on the wiretapping issue,” she said in a long-distance phone interview with INQ7.net.

President Arroyo visited the former British colony Monday to discuss with senior business leaders her administration's economic programs and the investment prospects in the Philippines.

The protesters, who gathered outside Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, also slammed the Arroyo administration for failing to boost the economy and adversely affecting the livelihood of their families in the Philippines, said Balladares.

“The unabated increase in prices of prime commodities, oil prices; the killing of activists, priests, lawyers and party-list members. These, and the scandals on ‘wiretapping’ and ‘jueteng’ are enough reasons for her [Arroyo] to resign,” she said.

Balladares called for the establishment of a coalition government where all sectors, including the OFWs, would be represented.

She said the rally, which lasted for one-and-a-half hours, dispersed peacefully.

Malacañang has said it would not comment and lend credence to the wiretapping issue, which it dismissed as handiwork of “destabilizers.”