Noise barrage goes pffft anew

A noise barrage in protest against the Estrada administration again fizzled out last night.

Only around 10 people showed up at Ayala and Buendia avenues in Makati City to encourage passing motorists to honk their horns just as people were getting off work at past 6 in the evening, police said.

The turnout was a bit better at the service road of Barangay Martin de Porres in Parañaque City, where some 100 protesters banged hard objects on the railway, they said.

The protest action was the second dud after the first one held last month led by the Silent Protest Movement, a group disillusioned with President Estrada. The Chief Executive ignored the failed noise barrage yesterday by the group also known as the "Enap op Erap Movement."

"It is easy to criticize than to work, and many of these (criticisms) are concocted by people who did not want me to win during the (presidential) campaign," the President said during a speech at the Jose Leido Memorial National High School in Calapan City, Mindoro Oriental .

"They are still trying to destroy me, they have not yet stopped. These losers are pathetic. So they should be ignored, and we have bigger things to do," the Chief Executive said.

But the noise barrage again proved to be less than noisy last night.

In the southern potion of Metro Manila, policemen in the cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas, Pasay City and Muntinlupa expressed surprise that there was in fact a protest action going on.

"What noise barrage? Meron ba ngayon (Is there any?) It's all silent over here," police radio operators told The STAR over the phone.

In the eastern section, silence was also the order of the day, police said.

Simultaneous noise protests began at 6 p.m. in the crowded Baclaran LRT station, FTI Food Terminal in Taguig, and in the Ayala business district in Makati.

The Chief Executive flew to Oriental Mindoro yesterday to inspect the status of government infrastructure projects in the province.

Mr. Estrada asked Filipinos to unite and work together to survive, if not to win, in the global trade competition for the interest and well-being of the entire nation.

"Their criticisms and faultfinding are nothing because it is more important for me to continue improving the standard of living of our people, especially the poor," he said.

In Malacañang, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. assured anti-administration protesters that the government will not impose restraints against their activities as long as these were within the law.

"Basically, what we're trying to say here is that let's see what their arguments are and after that, that's it, let's finish it," he said. "As long as they act within the bounds of the law."

Puno said Malacañang and the President's allies will respond to the protesters' complaints because this was part of the democratic process.

"We are a democracy and if this is another gimmick of the Exclamation Point group, that's their right," he said. "It is up to them what they plan to do."

However, Puno took exception to the claim of Jose Alcuaz's group that their activities are intended as a "wake-up call" to the Estrada administration.

"I think what they said is that they are not after the President's resignation," he said. "I think what they said is that there should be a wake-up call. We have been awake for a long time."

The Exclamation Point Movement said yesterday that it had not authorized Alcuaz to announce the movement's participation in last night's noise barrage nor did it approve the modification of the exclamation point symbol with the slogan "Enap op Erap" written underneath.

The movement named Ramon Binamira as its official spokesman.

Last night, various cause-oriented groups were scheduled to converge in several centers in Metro Manila from 6 to 7 p.m. to hold a noise barrage and call on the Estrada administration to reform or be ousted, said Teodoro Casiño, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Casiño said streamers with the words "Enap of Erap" and a caricature of the President being hit by lightning were set to be displayed in the areas.

"We have had enough of cronyism and corruption, incompetence and abuse of authority, rising tyranny and militarization, unbridled globalization and the sellout of the national patrimony," he said. "In other words, we have had enough of Erap."- With Marichu Villanueva, Jaime Laude