The people have spoken

‘At the Rizal Park, they – Catholic prelates, evangelists, representatives of all sectors of society, from the rich to the poorest – raised their collective voice against insidious attempts to rape our democratic Constitution.’ The people have spoken! THE VOICE of the people, so goes the beautiful and universal maxim, is the voice of God. Those now illegitimately wielding power should heed this message from heaven. The people don’t want Gloria Arroyo and her political minions, particularly Speaker Joe de Venecia and his houseful of lawbreakers, to change the Constitution. Last Sunday, we all saw the people, representing all sectors of society, Catholic Church prelates, evangelists of various denominations, priests and preachers, nuns, politicians, senators, congressmen and other opposition figures, businessmen, students and gurus from academe, and the long-suffering masses, gathered in a massive show of genuine people power, "...at the Luneta Grandstand, within sight of Jose Rizal’s monument." Oh yes, former members of Gloria’s Cabinet, belonging to the "Hyatt 10" group that resigned in disgust from their posts at the height of the scandalous cheating and manipulation of the 2004 presidential elections, were conspicuously present there. Their "Watch and Pray" was replicated in other key cities all over the nation, from Makati, Baguio, Dagupan, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, to Davao. All of them, like those at the Rizal Park in Manila, voiced their opposition to the insidious attempts to tamper and flout the sacred Charter, at this time, by the likes of Gloria and Joe de V and their callous sycophants and mouthpieces. The people, indeed, have shown by their united action that they are absolutely fed up with the rigging of elections, the raiding of the national treasury, the phony wars against official corruption, poverty and environmental desecration, the sterilized speechifying, the insipid photo-ops and the idiotic propaganda, which marked these past five years of Gloria’s illegitimate presidency. The Catholic Church prelates who presided at the prayer rally may not have polemicked like politicians, but their rapier-like words truly cut the issues to the bones. Much more needed than charter change, they intoned, is character change. They were referring to those who have been using dirty tricks to perpetuate themselves in power. And, they added, succinctly, "if those rushing charter change are really sincere about reforms. Then let them first reform the electoral system and restore its trustworthiness, starting with a thorough revamp of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Make the 2007 elections truly credible." All this indicated that the religious leaders have been watching closely how Gloria and her political strategists had manipulated the Comelec and engineered the conduct of the last presidential elections to insure, unlawfully, the victory of Gloria in 2004. The words of the bishops, as surely shared by the religious heads of other Christian followers, are deadlier than all the chants of the populace calling for Gloria to step down from power, the red banners of street demonstrations, and the persistent denunciations by the political opposition, the rights and the leftist, and perhaps even the incisive views of political pundits and analysts. The men of God were telling Gloria and the other powers-that-be the inconvenient truth about their transgressions, scandalous misdeeds and misgovernance. What indeed is the truth so inconvenient to Gloria and company? It is the truth that they have all been scheming to change the Constitution through foul, illegal, means all these many months. They first started with the hoax of a so-called "People’s Initiative." This was thrashed by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional – twice! Failing in this, they next changed the rules of the House of Representatives and railroaded the approval of the so-called "Constituted Assembly," sans Senate concurrence. But with the public tremendous uproar over their nocturnal action, they were compelled to bury the unwanted "Con-ass." And now they are toying around with the idea of calling for a Constitutional Convention. But this, too, is meeting public disapproval as premature, not the right time and not the right persons to introduce changes in the Charter or draft an entirely new one. The people are still wary. They did pray for unity at the Rizal Park, but they also said they are ever watchful for any monkey business to rape the Constitution. No, they won’t sell their votes, anymore. No, they won’t sell their freedom, not for the cheap political appeals of Gloria and Joe de Venecia and their conspirators. No, no, no, not anymore! Now, more than ever, the Filipino people are watchful, ever ready to stop those who are power mad, power hungry, from perpetuating themselves in office, and destroying democracy in our country! Diplomatic black eye. Do you remember the cancellation of the ASEAN Summit in Cebu City by Gloria Arroyo? Her propagandists claimed it had to be put off for next month because of impending bad weather. It turned out it was not just the coming storm (it spared the summit site) or the terrorist threat (as reported by Australia and Britain), but because of the political weather in Manila. And not jus the Moro Islamic secessionists in Mindanao, but by the heightened political situation over Gloria’s plan to push through radical charter change (this has been aborted already). Well, the repercussions of that cancellation are hitting Gloria right smack in her face, a kind of diplomatic black eye. According to The Nation, an influential Bangkok national newspaper, it "looks bad" for Asean. In its editorial, the Thai paper stated that it caused "considerable damage" to the regional grouping’s image, and that it "reflected poorly on the leadership of the Philippines. "Gone are the days when the organization was steered by Indonesia’s Suharto, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad. They were called dictators, but they did lead ASEAN and made it a real entity in world affairs." And who’s to blame for this fiasco? Gloria’s foreign affairs people have to do a lot of explaining to her for the diplomatic faux pas, not to mention those who bungled the handling of the whole sordid affair. Maylaya Newspaper by Nester Mata 12/21/06
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