HONG KONG - Hundreds of Filipinos in Hong Kong have been demonstrating to demand the resignation of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as she arrived for an investment conference.
The protesters, mostly domestic workers, gathered Sunday outside the five-star Grand Hyatt hotel where Arroyo was expected to stay. They chanted slogans in Tagalog, a main Philippine language, saying, "Gloria Arroyo step down" and "Oust Arroyo."
"We want her to go back home and face all the charges against her like corruption, human rights violations and the neglect of her government to overseas Filipino workers," says Eman Villanueva, secretary general of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.
"We want her to step down for all these," Villanueva says.
Hong Kong leader snubs Arroyo
The President's scheduled meeting with Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was inexplicably dropped from Mrs Arroyo's itinerary. She went to Hong Kong on Sunday, March 30, to meet Tsang and talk to top businessmen in the said Chinese territory.
It was not clear why Mrs Arroyo's talk with Tsang, originally set for April 1, and confirmed by Malacañang only last week, had been canceled.
According to reports from Manila, it was Mr Tsang himself who had asked Mrs Arroyo if she could come on an official visit in her next trip to Hong Kong.
The March 30 trip was the fourth time that Mrs Arroyo had visited Hong Kong since she assumed the presidency in 2001. However, her visit had always been in unofficial capacity.
The President, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, and some of her Cabinet officials are being linked to the allegedly anomalous $329.48-million National Broadband Network project with China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Corp.
Instead of meeting with Mr. Tsang, President Arroyo will hold talks with one of Hong Kong’s top businessmen, Gordon Wu, before returning to Manila on the third day of her visit.
She will also be the guest of honor at a dinner that will be hosted by Hui Mao of Shanghai Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce or the Shi Mao Group, the most influential business organization in Shanghai.
Inviting investors
The highlight of Mrs Arroyo's visit is her luncheon keynote address at the 11th Asian Investment Conference organized by Credit Suisse at the Conrad Hotel on March 31, Monday. Mrs Arroyo will be speaking in the conference titled “The Path to Modernization, Investing in the Future."
Mrs Arroyo will also go to the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where she will host a cocktail reception for some 500 members of the Filipino community.
The event will be attended by the leaders and members of the GMA Pa Rin Movement –HK. The group will be endorsing the Development Bank of the Philippines’ hedging investment program for overseas Filipino workers.
The launching of the Land Bank of the Philippines’ i-Net Negosyo and OFW Cash Card programs will also be held in the said event.
Militant groups have called on community leaders to boycott the event at the hotel. They have urged Filipinos in Hong Kong to join a protest rally that will be held in an open area just across Grand Hyatt.
The Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM-HK), an alliance of anti-Arroyo groups, earlier said it expected around 2,000 people to join the rally.
However, based on reports, leaders affiliated with the Catholic Church's Diocesan Pastoral Center for Filipinos and Filipino professionals in Hong Kong would stay away from the protest rally.
GSM-HK earlier called on members of the Filipino community to decline invitations to the reception, claiming that the Arroyo administration was planning to use the event to show that the President still has the support of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong.
It is also campaigning for a once in a month “no remittance day" as a way of saying that OFWs will no longer allow the Arroyo administration to use the workers' hard-earned money in its alleged corrupt activities.
The alliance, which includes big groups such as United Filipinos in Hong Kong and Jesus is Lord Movement, has vowed to continue its campaign until President Arroyo steps down.
GSM-HK set up five posts in Central Hong Kong last March 23, which were used to explain to OFWs the campaign against the Arroyo administration. Around 5,000 signatures supporting Mrs Arroyo's ouster were reportedly gathered during the campaign. - GMANews.TV, with AP
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Topic: Pinoys in Hong Kong protest as Arroyo arrives for meeting (Read 908 times)