Arroyo will go down in history like Marcos

MANILA -- Spread the word, Gloria Arroyo and her government is guilty
of crimes against the Filipino people. She is set to go down in
history like the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

We, the complainants who made the appeal to the Permanent Peoples'
Tribunal to hear our charges versus Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, are happy
with the tribunal's verdict.

We are proven correct in our belief that only a body independent of
Arroyo's influence and political clout can come out with a strong
verdict unlike in the Philippines where the judiciary is subjugated by
the whims of the Executive Office and rendered useless by state
terrorism.

We are very much elated with the verdict, even if we know that it will
not directly result to the arrest of Arroyo and her supporters. But as
she is condemned by the world as a criminal and as perpetrator of
these human rights violations, for us victims, we are given hope, a
glimmer of the light of justice. Like Marcos, she has sown terror and
fear among the people, and now she will reap the condemnation of the
Filipino people and the world. This is the beginning of her regime's
end.

She and her cohorts may have prevented the truth from coming out when
she successfully blocked two impeachment trials, but they had no way
to stop the glaring evidence against her in an international opinion
court. Now, the truth is out, and the whole world will know about her
crimes: the extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced
disappearances, massacres, illegal arrests and arbitrary detention,
attacks against the communities, attacks on peasants, workers, women
and children.

The Marcos dictatorship was also tried and found guilty by the PPT in
1980, before it was finally ousted in 1986.

We will now bring the results of the PPT to the wider public, in the
country and abroad. And we will also find more venues to bring our
cases against Arroyo, Bush and their supporters.

Our testimonies and evidences were sufficiently heard by the
international tribunal that found the Arroyo regime along with the
government of US Pres. George W. Bush guilty for violations of
political, economic and cultural rights and the people's right to
self-determination.###

PRESS STATEMENT - March 26, 2007

Reference: EVANGELINE HERNANDEZ, HUSTISYA Head Convener,
HUSTISYA, 09158562151

DEE AYROSO, Desaparecidos Coordinator,
09196083494