‘Never again to another dictatorship!’
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:18:00 06/15/2009
Filed Under: Dictatorship, Congress, Charter change, Politics, Protest
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...†Jn.10:10a (New Revised Standard Version of the Bible)
Beware of those who sneak in at night! While the Filipino people were deeply asleep on the evening of June 2, 2009, sinister forces, consisting of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s allies in Congress, once again launched a sneak attack to steal what was left of the little democratic space that the people still enjoyed. Under the leadership of Speaker Prospero Nograles, the House of Representatives forcibly rushed the passage of House Resolution 1109, thus paving the way for the convening of a constituent assembly to effect “Charter carnage.â€
In spite of loud protests from the people, Ms Arroyo, through her cohorts, stubbornly maneuvers to pursue Charter change. Cha-cha is meant just to perpetuate an immoral and illegitimate regime. Ms Arroyo should instead pursue as her priorities genuine agrarian reform, employment generation, liveable wage, affordable education and services and all the other popular issues.
Ms Arroyo’s and her minions’ insistence on forcing Cha-cha clearly manifests their dictatorial bent. True sovereignty emanates from the people, not from mercenaries.
As a parliamentary form of government does not guarantee a solution to the sickening political crisis, Cha-cha will only make our economy and patrimony more vulnerable to unbridled foreign exploitation and plunder, thus further degrading our nation’s sovereignty and trampling the constitutional provisions on human rights and civil liberties. Therefore, the claim that Cha-cha will lead to substantial change is an outright lie meant to deceive the people.
Cha-cha, like its dance version which is performed with forward-backward steps, has been attempted in the past but ended up in failure due to massive protests. It is destined to fail again this time.
We, in the Promotion of Church People’s Response, call on all faithful to stand firm and defend our democratic rights and sovereignty.
Never again to another dictatorship!
—NARDY SABINO, secretary general, Promotion of Church People’s Response,
879 Edsa, Quezon City
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