Posts tagged with charter change

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June 12, 2009

Anti-ConAss petition drive to mark school opening next week

Youth Action Day set on June 19, Rizal Day

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today said that youth groups will launch a nationwide petition campaign against the convening of a constituent assembly when classes open on Monday, June 15.

“We expect to gather one million signatures until the State of the Nation Address in July. Let this be a testament of how youth and students everywhere despise con-ass and attempts of the Arroyo administration to extend her term,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that Kabataan Party-list will be putting up signature campaign booths in schools and universities nationwide starting Monday.

Palatino’s office would also be sponsoring forums and campus tours dubbed “˜Konsultahang Kabataan’ with the topic, “Con-Ass and the 2010 Elections.’

“We will continue to work despite (Congress being on) recess. We will be reaching out to our constituents nationwide to gather their opinions and unite our ranks against this dreaded con-ass. Expect youth protests to snowball in the following days,” he said.

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Anti-ConAss Rallies in Makati & UP Diliman

Right after lunch time, students, teachers and other members of the University of the Philippines community in Diliman gathered at Quezon Hall to hold a short program and a press conference to condemn the moves of President Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives to convene itself into a Constituent Assembly (ConAss) to amend the 1987 Constitution.

ConAss is not what the country needs. Charter change will not address the youth’s problems with regard to education and job opportunities. We cannot allow this move to push through, seeing it as an initial step in a political scheme to prolong the Arroyo administration’s hold on power. We have witnessed how Arroyo and her allies have betrayed the aspirations of the youth and the rest of the Filipino people for a better government and a better life, and we must reject any move that is simply meant to prolong our agony. Wala tayong maaasahang pagbabago habang nandiyan si Gloria Arroyo. Either we oust her soon or we boot her and her allies out of office through the 2010 elections.

Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09) Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09) Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09) Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09) Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09) Anti-ConAss Rally (Jun. 10, '09)

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June 8, 2009

Different kind of virus to spread on June 10

Solon urges students to transform Ayala into “˜one giant classroom’

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today said that classes may have been suspended due to precautions over the AHN1 virus but a different kind of virus is spreading among youth and students.

“Precautionary measures over the AHN1 have caused the delay of the start of classes in colleges and universities this Monday but a more contagious virus is spreading among our youth and students today. It is the A-CA virus, the anti-constituent assembly virus, and more and more are being afflicted and there’s nothing we could do to stop it,” Palatino said.

Palatino said that youth and students have all the reasons to be outraged over the blatant railroading of the con-ass resolution by administration allies in Congress.

“We simply cannot allow con-ass to push through. The Arroyos and their allies can bribe or utilize government agencies all they want but they will be defeated by the defiance and collective action of our youth and our people. The only way to stop this atrocity is to go out and protest,” Palatino said.

Palatino also called on students to make good use of the unexpected vacation from school and join the Ayala protest on June 10.

“Let us transform Ayala into one giant classroom. Walang klase pero doon tayo magklase sa lansangan. June 10 will be more educational and informative of the country’s current political state than all our lectures in school combined,” said Palatino.

Palatino also called on school administrations that are against con-ass and charter change to encourage their students to join the June 10 protest.

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June 3, 2009

There’s a reason we all call it CON-ASS

Last night, I couldn’t resist the urge to drive off to Batasan and witness for myself how the Arroyo-controlled House of Representatives would pass House Resolution 1109 declaring that the House may convene itself into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) to amend the Constitution without the participation of the Senate.

There was an apparent media blackout early in the evening. Updates on the debates in Congress were absent in primetime news. It wasn’t after a few hours later when they would air the proceedings live on cable TV. By that time, I was already in Congress.

There were more than 200 congressmen present that night, an unusually excellent attendance in a Congress that has serious problems reaching quorum during most sessions. Something, indeed, was up that night. The marching orders and the lure of bribe money from Malacanang must’ve been too irresistible.

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December 9, 2008

UP Diliman USC: No to Cha-Cha!

No to term extension! No to Charter Change! Join the broad multisectoral inter-faith Anti-Charter Change Mobilization in Makati on Friday, December 12. UP students assembly point is at Palma Hall Lobby at 11:30 AM.

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December 1, 2008

Establishing a dictatorship

Some of my colleagues in the University Student Council and I joined the youth rally Tuesday last week to condemn the Arroyo administration’s pronouncements of Charter change and term extension. That was the day before the House of Representatives’ Justice Committee junked the latest attempt to unseat President Arroyo through impeachment.

We held a short program with the people at Plaza Miranda before snaking around the Quiapo area to encourage people to join the march to Mendiola where we were eventually blocked by the usual police barricade. After holding a brief program near Morayta, we dispersed peacefully.

We all know the President has the House of Representatives. And after sowing division among opposition senators (fueled by their own political ambitions) in the Senate, it’s now also effectively hers, too. The Supreme Court is also soon going to be hers with her impending appointment of seven SC Justices, effectively transforming the highest court in the land into an assembly of Arroyo appointees. The military leadership is also hers. The last impeachment attempt before 2010 has been junked. Her Congressional allies are a few votes short of convening a Constituent Assembly to change the Constitution. The entire machinery of the government is effectively at her disposal. Maintaining the loyalty of all these crocodiles, of course, entails an enormous cost on ordinary Filipino taxpayers.

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November 26, 2008

A Tyrant’s Desperate Attempt

When Press Secretary Jesus Dureza prayed last November 18 in a Cabinet meeting that Gloria Arroyo will continue to lead the country “even beyond 2010,” he actually meant it. The President herself also meant it, even as she pretended to be embarrassed, as the events before and after the prayer indicate that the Charter change is set up once again for an Arroyo dictatorship beyond 2010.

After its failed attempt to use the MOA on Acestral Domain with the MILF to initiate constitutional amendments, the US-Arroyo regime is now more desperate than ever to clear the way for the Charter change express. Arroyo’s last ditch effort to extend her term is without the usual theatrics and pretensions – the danger of term extension is now staring us at the eye.

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September 24, 2008

STAND-UP Anti-War, Anti-ChaCha Festival

Anti-War Anti-Chacha Festival, STAND-UP, Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights-UP

Last September 17, students and progressive groups in UP Diliman held an Anti-War Anti-Cha-Cha Festival in protest against the war in Mindanao, Charter Change, and continued gas hikes.

The whole-day activity was kick-started by anti-war games at the lobby of Palma Hall as a form of protest against the continuing deployment of military and US troops in Mindanao. The main game was “Dodgeball Against GMA” where two-teams–one twenty-strong team composed of students in 70′s attire and another in GMA masks–went head to head for the dodgeball championship. The tournament sought to symbolize the triumph of pro-people policies against the current ones being implemented by President Arroyo.

Part of the festival was a forum in the afternoon by leading UP faculty at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Audio-Visual Room. That was a forum regarding the prospects of the continuing war in light of the current peace negotiations.

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September 10, 2008

Justice pretenders

For Constitutional Law 1 class, our professor made us replay in our own way the Supreme Court proceedings in Lambino vs. COMELEC. My blockmates and I took on different roles as Supreme Court Justices, petitioners and respondents. I was on the side of the Sigaw ng Bayan / People’s Initiative petitioners as Erico Aumentado. Some of us even took on the role of the Solicitor General and amicus curiae Joaquin Bernas.

A day before the moot court, we reserved the court room to get a feel of the proceedings the next day. The next day, we even wore robes in our “role-playing”.

It was pretty interesting being on the side of the petitioners defending the now-botched people’s initiative charter change petition of Sigaw ng Bayan, which was once one of the most heated socio-political issue in the country back in 2005, if I’m not mistaken. I was against it back then. Going through the case made me rethink the issue. I still feel largely against it, however, but only in as much as it was obviously a political maneuver during those days. In principle, I think charter change (though, we have to qualify what sort of change) and people’s initiative is a good idea.

Yesterday, we replayed the justices’ deliberations using our own arguments, and we invited Atty. Raul Lambino, himself, to witness it and talk about the petition. He’s one of our blockmate’s father, actually.

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August 30, 2008

Wag the Dog: Mula MOA hanggang Cha-Cha

War is show business, that’s why we’re here.
- Conrad Brean (Wag the Dog, 1997)

Lantad na lantad ang makasariling interes ng rehimen ni Gloria Arroyo at ng U.S. sa pagpasok sa Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) ng Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) at Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Mula sa mga abo ng pagkabigo ng kaniyang pakanang People’s Initiative for Charter Change noong 2006, muling gumawa ng oportunidad ang kaniyang rehimen upang pasayawin ang mamamayan sa kaniyang Cha-Cha sa pamamagitan ng pagkasangkapan sa mahigit apat na dekadang armadong tunggalian sa Mindanao para sa kanilang karapatan sa sariling pagpapasya o right to self-determination.

Ang matagal nang pakikibaka ng mamamayang Moro para sa kanilang mga pampulitika at pang-ekonomiyang kahilingan ay malayong maisakatuparan sa ilalim ng pamumuno ni GMA. Imbes na sinserong harapin ang ugat ng kahirapan at pag-aaklas ng mga kababayang Moro na primaryang nagmumula sa pagsasamantala ng malalaking panginoong may-lupa at korporasyong multinasyunal sa kanilang mga ancestral lands, ginamit pa itong pagkakataon para itambol at isulong ang naantalang anti-mamamayang Cha-Cha na sa huli ay lalo lamang magtitiyak ng interes ng iilan sa “˜Bangsamoro homeland’. Tunay na walang sinseridad ang rehimeng ito sa pangmatagalang kapayapaan sa Mindanao at nagawa pang isangkalan ang buhay at kapakanan ng mga sundalo’t sibilyan para isulong ang mga nasabing interes at upang magbunsod pa ng giyera na nakikitang pagkakataon upang gawing lehitimo ang mga base militar sa Mindanao at ang paggamit ng emergency powers dahil sa giyerang ang rehimen niya mismo ang may pakana.

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