Elite-led cha-cha will only perpetuate political crises

July 29, 2005

Workers from the Alliance of Progressive Labor staged a picket at the foot of Mendiola Bridge this morning to criticize the ploy of President Gloria Arroyo to escape political ouster by leading the campaign from among the elites for a charter change.

"Workers from around the country are in resolute opposition to the proposed charter change through a constituent assembly being peddled by the likes of Fidel Ramos and Jose de Venecia. The Alliance of Progressive Labor reiterates that the crisis plaguing the political system is borne not out of whatever conceivable defects may be in the Constitution, but from the very brand of patronage and traditional politics that the proponents of this constituent assembly stand for," Edwin Bustillos, APL Deputy Secretary General, said.

"Leave the Constitution alone. GMA's accountability for her actions will not be glossed over by tinkering with the fundamental law of the land. The evil of the system is perpetrated by those wielding influence over it, not by the law that should prevail over it," Bustillos added.

The APL said that it will not stand by and allow the elites to settle their bickering at the workers' expense. While in principle they agree that a unicameral parliament and a federal system are structural prescriptions that can help alleviate workers from poverty, the progressive economic provisions of the Constitution must not be touched. Not under these circumstances, and certainly not through the means proposed.

"Lest we be misled into thinking that Charter Change will clear the toxic atmosphere clouding the political and economic life of the country, the APL reiterates that radical reforms will not obtain from an elite-initiated and dominated constitutional amendment process. Workers are firm in our belief that to allow this initiative now will only benefit GMA, her allies and individuals with their agenda and ambitions," Bustillos explained.

The group urged the public and especially workers everywhere to reject Cha-Cha now, and to guard against what other 'graceful exit' strategies may be concocted for GMA's besieged regime. They said that it is her ouster from Malacañang, and the conduct of a broader, participatory and transparent consensus afterwards among various social sectors and movements will clear the way for genuine reforms to take root in our country and only through then can we begin to entertain dialogues about possible amendments to the Constitution.