A TIME FOR MOURNING

Today will be marked as a miserable day in our nation's history. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's pardon of former president Joseph Estrada, granted without need of a public admission of guilt, is a mockery of justice and an insult to all Filipinos. It is a reflection of the culture of transactional politics that has characterized GMA's regime, which has brought our country to a state of moral bankruptcy.

We ask every citizen to join us in mourning the death of justice in our country. Tie black ribbons to your vehicles and wear black every Friday starting today. Let us paint this nation's heart black, for that is its color at its core. Those in government who often claim respect for the rule of law and who are sworn to uphold it are the very ones who pervert it.

Let us also stop according our government officials – the President, Vice-President, Cabinet Secretaries, Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and Mayors allied with GMA, the honor they do not deserve. Ginagago na tayo. The least we can do is to STOP calling them "honorable", refuse to shake their hands, or stand up or clap for them at their public appearances.

Each one of us should ask our Governor, Mayor, and Congressman of whatever party affiliation, "Pumunta ka ba sa Malacanang?" and "Nakatanggap ka ba?" With the ease by which they offend our sensibilities and basic decency, they deserve no less than our ostracism.

To our OFWs who have kept our economy afloat with your sacrifice and hard-earned remittances, we ask that you express your outrage through emails that you are so good at sending out around the world. Please send messages of indignation to Philippine embassies and consulates in your host countries. Work to use your influence over your families to boot out corrupt officials in 2010. Help us express global outrage at the impunity with which an illegitimate president rules.

Sadly, the reason we are in this state of moral bankruptcy today is because we have been indirect accomplices in the past through our silence.

BW Movement