The Guardians Nationalist of the Philippines (GANAP) announces the holding of its national convention, July 25-26, to be held at the Gateway Mall/Food Express (3rd Floor), Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City.
GANAP, headed by former bank executive Ernesto Macahiya, is a new Guardians group that had a falling out last year with Sen. Gregorio Honasan. Macahiya was his former national spokesman. Both were charged by the government in the so-called Oakwood mutiny of July 27, 2003 then headed by now detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes. Honasan had a P5M bounty for his capture while Macahiya was given P.5M.
Honasan’s case was dismissed at the level of the DOJ panel, as the court legally threw out Macahiya’s, for the alleged conspiracy to commit the crime of coup d’etat. Honasan has since been silent on his former reform advocacies following the dismissal of his case, given on instruction of then DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzales. The Palace is suspected to be behind the dismissal, a political accommodation granted to Honasan, as his case can be re-opened anytime by the DOJ like the Dacer-Corbito case.
GANAP which is now at the mainstream of the Guardians movement, has BGen. Danilo Lim and Sen. Trillanes as its advisers. Former PNP chief and now Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Gen. Avelino Razon recently joined GANAP. Razon had earlier announced contesting next year’s mayoralty elections in Manila against re-electionist Mayor Fred Lim and come-backing DENR Secretary Lito Atienza.
Macahiya announced his group’s intention to participate in next year’s partylist elections. “We intend to level up our call for meaningful reforms in government and society, both of which are now mired in unbridled corruption and feeling of hopelessness among our people,” he said.
“Development is a function of good governance, as US president Barack Obama recently said, and the Philippines is a good example of this view. Repression of the people’s distrust of their governments as well as leech-like grip to power by unpopular leaders, are two of the root causes of the country’s poverty. It is time to end this cycle of power abuse and mis-governance, and release our people from the bondage of ignorance, spiritual anguish and moral decadence,” Macahiya added.