Con-Ass or Con-Con, Cha-Cha Will Meet the People’s Ire

Members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno – Southern Mindanao Region joined fellow member organizations of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan at a picket of Congressman Prospero Nograles’ office yesterday in Davao City. Nograles has become a target of protests because of his role in the administration-allied group in congress that is railroading charter change. Speaker of the House Jose de Venecia announced Saturday at a press conference that they were giving the Senate 72 hours to agree to a Constitutional Congress or the House would proceed with its plans for a Con-Ass.

“Whether Con-Ass or Con-Con, the moves of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s lapdogs in Congress is pure bullying and manipulation of the political system,” said Romualdo Basilio, regional chairperson of the militant labor center. “The illegal railroading of Cha-Cha in any form demonstrates the absurdity of their grounds for a shift to a parliamentary system in the first place. ‘Poverty and development’ issues will never be resolved as long as power mongers and the elite dominate our political system—whatever its form.”

KMU-SMR scoffed at Nograles support of Cha-Cha for reasons of so-called ‘poverty alleviation.’ “This man who threw all sorts of obstacles in the way of the passage of the P125 wage increase is now concerned about ‘poverty alleviation’? And proposes Charter Change as the most efficient means to achieve that?” Basilio retorted. “Workers will never take this man seriously. He shunned the years-long campaign of the working class for significant economic relief, and instead is pushing for some abstract shift in government system on the grounds of economic development. This contradiction in terms proves that Nograles, de Venecia and other grunts in Congress are after one thing: their own political preservation.”

According to the most recent SWS survey, 67% of the population is opposed to Charter Change. “Whatever formula they use, Cha-Cha will be met with the people’s ire,” Basilio said. “The people need economic and disaster relief in the short term, and national industrialization in the long term, not a new Constitution that will open up our land and people for further exploitation by monopoly capitalists.”

Basilio commented that a unicameral or bicameral congress is irrelevant as long as representatives of the elite maintain political power. “Will a parliamentary system prevent the fascist attacks on our people? Will it put an end to the murder of nearly 800 political activists and critics of the Arroyo administration? First on the people’s agenda is the ouster of the stone-hearted US-Arroyo regime.” KMU and other mass organizations began nationwide protest actions today against Charter Change.