Karapatan scores bill on special privileges for ex-presidents

By KARAPATAN
February 10, 2023

QUEZON CITY – Human rights alliance Karapatan scored a bill filed in the Senate that seeks to provide official government roles as well as special privileges to former presidents at the public’s expense.

“Senate Bill No. 1784 will benefit three living ex-presidents, all of whom earned infamy for massive corruption, among other scornful acts,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

“Ex-Pres. Joseph Estrada was forced out of office for the jueteng payola scandal,” said Palabay. “Ex-Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s nine-year rule was marked with several impeachment attempts due to the ‘Hello, Garci’ electoral fraud scandal, the multi-million peso fertilizer and pesticide scam and the numerous extrajudicial killings and involuntary disappearances of activists, to name a few,” she added. “And ex-President Rodrigo Duterte is, of course, infamous for the thousands of summary executions of suspected drug personalities and activists, among others.”

“Why should we pay for the political resurrection of ex-presidents whose reputations stink to high heaven and who have already been roundly repudiated by the people?” asked Palabay. “Do the authors of this bill want to make political resurrections fashionable because the current president himself is from a family that the Filipino people have relegated to the trash bins of history?”