Philippines:Church groups to lead protests against Charter Change.

Arroyo is trying everything possible to change the constitution before her term runs out but opposition to her schemes is growing by leaps and bounds. Church groups are very active in protests including the Roman Catholic Church in spite of the Pope frowning upon such political activism officially.

Showdown on Charter change
December 11, 2008 00:48:00
Dona Pazzibugan Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—Church groups will lead Friday’s mutisectoral rally against Charter change (Cha-cha), the first such major demonstration since Malacañang allies revived moves to amend the Constitution and possibly postpone the 2010 national polls.
Sr. Mary John Mananzan, national co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), Wednesday said various groups had pledged to take part in the 4-9 p.m. rally at the Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas intersection in Makati City.
The latest was the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), the biggest alliance of schools in the country with 1,252 members.
Two senators eyeing the presidency in 2010—Manuel Villar and Manuel “Mar” Roxas II of the Nacionalista and Liberal Parties, respectively—also said they would join the mass action along with their party mates.
Senator Roxas and his own party mates, including former Senate President Franklin Drilon as well as Senators Francis Pangilinan and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, will likewise be present.
“We expect around 20,000,” Mananzan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net). “As long as they are against Charter change, they can join us.”
She said the Makati Business Club (MBC) and the civic group Black and White Movement would also join the rally.
Fr. Joe Dizon of the Solidarity Movement, one of the rally organizers, said the mass action was aimed at isolating President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies and repudiating their purported efforts to stay in power longer.
“This is one issue where we can place GMA (Ms Arroyo) and her allies in a politically isolated situation,” Dizon said at the weekly Fernandina Forum at Club Filipino in San Juan City.
He said the issue of Charter change was a rare opportunity for fragmented opposition forces, civil society groups and religious organizations to band together against the Arroyo administration.
Pols’ presence
Senator Villar told the Inquirer at its 23rd anniversary celebration on Tuesday night that he would attend the rally together with his party mates including Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
He said he was against Charter change—whether through a constituent assembly (Con-ass) or a constitutional convention (Con-con)—at this time.
“The presence of the [LP] at the rally will show its objection and opposition to a Con-ass mode,” said Drilon, who also showed up at the Inquirer celebration.
He said the participation of all sectors, including the youth, in the rally “should be encouraged.”
Drilon said he had “no doubt” that Ms Arroyo was pushing the Con-ass mode.
“That’s why the appointments to the Supreme Court in the next year will be crucial in determining the course of history,” he said, adding that the first six months of 2009, when there would be four vacancies in the high court, were especially crucial.
Drilon said the current “fight” was to prevent members of Ms Arroyo’s party, the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), from getting the 197 signatures required to convene a Con-ass.
He said he had heard that three lawmakers, including a party-list representative, were now withdrawing their signatures from the House resolution Con-ass.
Absent but supportive
Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, is backing the mass action that he will be unable to attend.
“Of course I support [the Makati rally], although I cannot join them because our archdiocese in Jaro is [preparing] our social actions and holding a similar prayer rally in solidarity with them,” Lagdameo said.
“We hope our lawmakers hear the public clamor against Charter change. If there will be [amendments to the Constitution], these should be done after the 2010 elections. That is our hope and our prayer,” he said.
Navotas Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani and Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez are expected to join the rally.
At the Fernandina Forum, MBC executive director Alberto Lim expressed the group’s belief that the current Cha-cha campaign was targeting the Constitution’s “political provisions” rather than the economic ones.
“We don’t think the move to amend the Constitution will actually help our situation today. It is a smokescreen to have us all lose our way,” he said.
Lim further warned that if the Arroyo administration should push Charter change, “it may shorten its life.”
Mananzan said the rally organizers’ position on Charter change was not inflexible: “It’s not an absolute no. We just don’t want Cha-cha to be used for the benefit of some specific people.”
She likened Filipinos to lab rats conditioned to becoming immobile through electric shock.
“We should not be victims of learned helplessness,” she said. “I’m already a senior citizen, so don’t tell me my knees are stronger than those young people who don’t go to the streets.”
Students and faculty of CEAP colleges and universities Wednesday marched with farmers to the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City to protest the planned amendment of the Constitution and to call on lawmakers to focus their energies instead on extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
In a homily at the St. Peter’s Church before the march, the CEAP president, Msgr. Gerardo Santos, exhorted the assembly to join the anti-Cha-cha rally.
“Of course, the schools will join us,” Mananzan, the president of St. Scholastica’s College, told the Inquirer.
In a statement, the CEAP assailed the fresh attempt at Charter change.
“Just as in 2006, [Cha-cha] advocates can barely conceal that their real aim is not reform but further concentration of power. Even as they pay lip service to economic and political development, Cha-cha proponents cannot disguise their overriding objective of prolonging the stay in power of current officials, particularly the President,” it said.
Other groups in rally
The other groups that have originally committed to join the rally are the Promotion of Church People’s Response, Jesus is Lord Movement, United Opposition (UNO), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Sanlakas, Akbayan, Concerned Citizens Movement, Edsa 3 Coalition, Sanlakas, Youth Act Now! and the newly formed Coalition for National Transformation.
In Naga City, the Coalition for Citizens’ Constitution (C4CC) said it would hold noise barrages against Cha-cha during the whole month of January.
“We will call every Friday of January ‘Black Friday,’” said Rene Gumba, leader of C4CC and director of the Ateneo de Naga University’s Institute of Politics. “The series of noise barrages will be called ‘Busina laban sa Cha-cha, Busina para sa demokrasya.’”
C4CC has conducted various protest actions, including noise barrages, in Naga this month.
‘Impossible dream’
It has chapters in the cities of Cebu, Davao and General Santos, the National Capital Region, and parts of the Bicol region.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that while the people had a right to join the Dec. 12 rally, “there is no need for them” to do so.
“What they fear will not happen because there are many people [in the Senate] who are against [amending the Constitution]. I know them, but I cannot name them to be fair to them,” Enrile said, reiterating that Charter change now was an “impossible dream.”“I am confident about what I’m telling you—that we cannot muster 18 senators to approve any removal of a comma, adjective, adverb, verb, pronoun, article or preposition from the Constitution,” he said.
Enrile also said he was open to a dialogue with House members where he would tell them that they could not push for the Senate and the House to vote jointly.
“They cannot do it. They must remember that we adopted the principle of bicameralism. I suggest to them that, when they talk about the Constitution or deal with any issue involving the Constitution, they must interpret it in the full context of [its entirety] and not in isolation,” he said.
Enrile also said that “after 2010, when we elect new people, maybe we can consider the Con-ass.”
As it is, he said, Ms Arroyo had not talked to him about “Cha-cha, or even tango.” With reports from DJ Yap and Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. in Manila; Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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