Thursday, January 12, 2006

NR0112: talks of chacha to water down calls for GMA's ouster

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release
January 12, 2006. Thursday
House of Representatives, South Wing Rm 602.
Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer
Cellphone number 09277967006, 931-6615
Email: rep_crispin_beltran@yahoo.com Visit geocities.com/ap_news

Ka Bel: Palace and its allies trumping up Charter Change to water down calls for PGMA’s ouster; GMA benefits the most from talks of Constitutional revisions more than ever

Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran today expressed alarm at “the haphazard and rabid pace by which Charter Change is being pushed” by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies”, stressing that “the public should be wary of and summarily reject these calls for a parliamentary system through Charter Change and no elections because these are being used to diffuse the growing calls for PGMA to step down”.

Beltran reiterated that the changes in the form of government proposed through Charter Change will not solve, but instead, exacerbate the existing economic and political woes of the Filipino people. “It’s the same banana: the same formula for social crisis. It only intends to slightly reshuffle power-sharing among traditional and elite politicians, such as FVR, de Venecia, and GMA, who have basically kept a stranglehold over the country’s flawed governing bodies and have pushed for economic policies that have kept the majority of Filipinos dirt poor up to now. These economic policies—liberalization, privatization, deregulation—will be clearly reinforced through Cha-cha and will bring nothing but more hunger and havoc to the Filipino people in the future,” Beltran said.

Beltran added that all the talk of Charter Change skirts the issue of the President’s loss of mandate to govern. “The Palace benefits the most from all this talk of Charter Change because it deflects attention away from the ongoing clamor for the President’s ouster from office. They’re using it to give an illusion of reform by shuffling the existing political configurations para makalimutan ng tao na dapat patalsikin na si Gng. Arroyo at panatilihin siya sa puwesto,” he said. “The recent Social Weather Stations survey shows that the majority of Filipinos no longer respect PGMA as President and that they want her out ever since last year. The Cha-chas proposed by Arroyo, Ramos, de Venecia, and their allies only intend to consolidate their hold over power and muddle the mounting opposition to Arroyo’s illegal stay in the Palace,” he added.

Beltran expressed doubts at the House Speaker Jose de Venecia’s response to the present political friction between Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) and Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, saying that “JdV’s proposed “win-win” solution for the present political dispute will not solve any of the problems affecting the basic masses. It’s still a two-way loss for the majority of the Filipino people”. JdV proposed a two-way scenario where GMA remains as President, but power is lessened and shared with a Prime Minister under a parliamentary system of governance.

“It’s an atrocious scenario: you still have PGMA and other traditional elite politicians in power, and a sell-out Constitution that is far worse, anti-nationalist, and anti-people than the existing one,” Beltran said. ###

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