12 December 2006

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga -- Despite President Arroyo’s turn-around and the House leadership’s abandonment of the constituent- assembly (Con-ass) to favor Con-con mode, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Gitnang Luson (BAYAN-GL) said it will continue to mount massive street protests even as it urges the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and other religious groups to push through with the slated mass action on December 15 at Rizal Park in Manila.

Roman Polintan, Bayan-GL chair, said the President and her allies in the House of Representatives suddenly feared the massive outpouring of anger and street protests politically damaging to the administration.

“But this is no reason for us to hold back our protest actions. Let us raise a political storm stronger than Typhoon Reming to batter and blow away Con-ass and Cha-cha to kingdom come,” he stressed. He said his group has joined last night’s vigil at Batasan and the march-rally this afternoon.

Polintan also scoffed at De Venecia’s Con-con gambit, saying this is a cheap, brazen political blackmail on the Senate as well as a face-saving device in the face of the President’s sudden withdrawal of support to Con-ass.

But he pointed out that the real reason for this change of posture is their fear of the mounting protest actions which could result in eventual ouster of President Arroyo. He stressed that the President’s sudden change of heart left the House in a quandary and De Venecia’s challenge to the Senate to come up within 3 days with a resolution calling for a constitutional convention was just an attempt to save their face.

Bayan-GL also lambasted the Con-ass supporters in Congress for “mindlessly railroading the passage of House Resolution No. 197 by sheer tyranny of numbers, setting aside decency and propriety to serve their selfish end.”

Polintan said the move betrays the desperation of President Arroyo and power-hungry congressmen to stay in power through term extension.

Teachers, too, are joining the protest actions to defeat administration- backed initiatives to change the Constitution, according to Fabian Hallig, secretary-general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Central Luzon (ACT-CL).

“We are determined to exterminate this political hydra of Charter-change to save our people and the nation,” said Hallig. “The people have already chopped off 2 heads of this monster, the GMA-backed people’s initiative and the Con-ass. Only one head remains, the Con-con, which we must also cut off,” he added.

Militant groups had been openly opposing all Cha-cha initiatives of the Arroyo administration, saying this will not solve the current socio-economic crisis besieging the country but would only aggravate it and also threaten to remove existing provisions protecting the country’s economic and political sovereignty and the people’s human rights and civil liberties.

Reference:
Roman L. Polintan
Chairperson, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Gitnang Luson (BAYAN-GL)
City of San Fernando, Pampanga
CP No. 09266705011