Cha-Cha is red herring for Gloria's perpetual rule

The Alliance of Progressive Labor today staged protest actions in commemoration of Independence Day to denounce the continued pursuit of charter change and continue to press for the ouster of PGMA.

"There is no genuine independence in an environment in which you have an administration undermining the very same laws it has sworn to uphold," said APL Secretary-General Josua Mata.

"The political crisis remains unresolved, and the economy is crumbling," added the labor leader. "In concrete terms, that translates into less food on the table, more students out of schools and finding work, more and more activists and journalists being killed, and democratic institutions being undermined on a daily basis."

"Independence is a continuing struggle for the working class," added Mata. "It is an unfinished business for as long as the same elites control power and blocking the dispersal of genuine growth to the attainment of the rights that every worker should be afforded."

"Charter change is just another elitist tool to keep the workers impoverished," explained the veteran labor leader. "it is not a panacea, but a red herring of tremendously disastrous proportions."

"First of all," said Mata, "it does not take away the fact that it is not only the people sitting in government that is the problem, not only the form of government, but the whole social system controlled by the few moneyed class and trapo or traditional politicians. Second, it doesn't concretely address the core issues of poverty and injustice, and third, it is designed to only sweep the current crisis under the rug."

"What we want is regime change, the ouster of GMA and elite rule, and the installation of a better system than what we have now," said Mata. "We want radical reforms, and only then can we truly say that we would finally have genuine independence."