Guingona, activists launch anti-Chacha signature drive

Former vice president Teofisto Guingona and anti-administration groups on Thursday launched a signature campaign to purportedly offset the Charter change initiatives of President Arroyo’s allies. Guingona and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) led the launching assembly of the People's Movement against Arroyo's Charter Change or People’s March at the Mandel Hall, Trinity College, Quezon City. Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said they will round parishes and communities to gather signatures against the amendment of the Constitution. The group maintained that any move to tinker with the Constitution is untimely. Also among the convenors of the Peoples' March are Bishops Deogracias Iñiguez, Alberto Ramento and Godofredo David; Dr. Ruben Caragay of the University of the Philippines, Prof. Edberto Villegas, former human rights commissioner Nasser Marohomsalic of United Muslims for Truth and Morality, and Evelyn Alcaraz-Muallil of Women March. Guingona said it was dangerous to change the Charter at this time because this will result in an alleged unfavorable change of government from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government. Under a parliamentary system, Guingona feared, the majority’s numbers can more easily outmuscle the minority bloc. For his part, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran said the Malacañang-sponsored information-drive on Charter Change is solely for political survival, rather than a genuine "Peoples' Initiative" for social change. He scored the Palace's "renewed public information drive to popularize Arroyo's Cha-Cha." The President's allies in the Lower House and local government units are doing the nation a great disservice by their connivance in the Palace drive to have Charter Change railroaded this year, Beltran said. He noted, "The Palace will benefit the most from 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 panatilihin siya sa puwesto at makalimutan ng tao na dapat patalsikin na si Gng. Arroyo." Beltran said a genuine People's Initiative is the broad call to let the truth about the nation's state of governance be known, as well as to immediately remove Mrs. Arroyo from the Palace. “This is the true People's Initiative that Arroyo and her allies are doing their best to stifle and suppress, whether through repressive Executive Orders, political maneuverings in the Lower House, or outright suppression," Beltran said.-GMANEWS.TV