AS this paper enters its third year of publication after hibernating for over 30 years because it did not want to be part of charade in the state-controlled press during the dark reign of Martial Rule — and still waited for more time for self-examination before finally indulging itself into the realm of community journalism where ad solicitors become reporters and vice-versa — we wish to make a toast with our readers who sincerely trust us that we shall remain steadfast in our role as harbinger of truth and responsible journalism.

It is unfortunate that while we are celebrating the third year of our rebirth as Bicolandia’s only regional newspaper which incidentally falls on Naga’s 57th city charter anniversary where the first city mayor was the late Leon SA. Aureus who founded Bicol Mail fifty years ago, we cannot help but mourn with what’s happening to our country today.

Let our toast therefore be for a new dawn when President GMA would have examined her conscience and see what good can be done to save this country.

With lies and denials strewn all over following scary tales of fraud, bribery, and vicious machinations to hold the truth at bay, there is no doubt that the highest official of the land has time and again lost her moral ascendancy to rule and that unless she makes some drastic action that would convince the people that she deserves a second chance, there is no reason for her to stay a second and prolong the agony. Like her predecessor Erap Estrada, GMA has proven to be a weak leader, her questionable mandate from the start gnawed by the insatiable greed of her own kin.

Despite her strong fighting words meant for public consumption, GMA was weak in fighting graft and corruption and, according to her critics, further exacerbated them, with her husband, son-legislator and brother-in-law as chief conspirators in making GMA’s presidency a rotten, corrupt, debauched administration that it is.
Never has corruption been so shameless and widespread since Gloria took her seat as president after the fall of Erap which presupposed that she would make things better.

Even before the twin scandals about jueteng and her alleged design to rig the last presidential election through a corrupt Comelec commissioner have exploded, Gloria had already been criminally liable for failing to curb corruption where the victims are always the poor, the usual victims of oppressive governance. She stands guilty of a serious crime because “the harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor, who are hardest hit by economic decline, are most reliant on the provision of public services that do not come, and are least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery, fraud, and the misappropriation of economic privileges”.

For a new tomorrow, when we shall be churning out our forthcoming issues, let us toast with the hope that without much delay GMA would please resign.