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NEWS RELEASE
25 February 2008

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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.

Tapang said that while Arroyo aims to build a strong economy, she is selling all our mineral and energy resources to foreign investors without due regard to its impact on our industrialization and the plunder of our environment. Scientists and engineers are dangled funding support without resolving the reasons that drive many of us to go abroad or change careers, added Dr. Tapang.

"To be first world, the government has to develop local industries and wean itself from dependence on foreign investments. Even if you increase the DOST budget or provide scholarships and funding, if the only companies that will be able to use them are foreign-owned and controlled, how can there be direct benefit for the Filipino people from our scientists' discoveries?" asked Tapang.

"Even in information technology, Gloria's promises will not bring us development. From the National broadband network with the Chinese that is tainted with graft and corruption to the opening of more call centers and data processing operations, these are geared towards providing services to other countries even if there are no local industry and services that are built here in our own," he said.

Scientists want integrity, truth, and change

AGHAM will be mobilizing more of its members and networks from the scientific community in the coming days in protest against President Arroyo's continuing stay in power, Dr. Tapang said.

"We, engineers, scientists and technologists can no longer ignore the corruption of this government. We condemn its utter disregard of our rights and institutions, engendering a climate of impunity and revealing the unwillingness of Arroyo to heed the strong clamor for her to resign despite the stack of evidence against her. This government commits crimes with impunity because it seriously believes it can get away with anything. It abuses its power to cover up its tracks, thinking the we the people are stupid enough to believe anything," Dr. Tapang stressed.

"We seek the truth. We support Engr. Lozada, who finished electronics and communications engineering at UST in 1984, in standing for truth and exposing the details that confirms the extent of corruption within this government," Dr. Tapang said.

"We join the people's call to exercise their sovereign right to bring about a government that is independent, moral, and pro-people in the face of Arroyo administration continued efforts to usurp it. We call Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to account for these scandals and for her policies that allow the plunder of our economy and natural resources. We add our voices to calls for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down or be ousted and join hands with the rest of the Filipinos who are disgusted with corruption, cheating and cover-ups," Dr. Tapang concluded. ###

Reference: DR. GIOVANNI TAPANG, National Chairperson, 09286974804,
gtapang@ gmail.com