People's (i.e.Gloria's) Initiative in the Philippines

[ken hanly <northsunm@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is an editorial in the paper that is being
charged with sedition. Interesting that ambassadors
actually join demonstrations in Belarus and complain
of electoral fraud but in the RP there are no
sanctions and no joining in the demonstrations.
  This people's initiative is a fraud to keep Gloria
in power up to 2010 and get rid of the senate that
keeps uncovering embarassing corrupt practices by her
government.

03/29/2006

Gloria Arroyo and her aides are digging for themselves
a deeper grave, with their insistent push for Charter
change (Cha-cha), whether from her rubber stamp House
through a single-chamber Constituent Assembly or
through that mockery of a people?s initiative that
everyone knows is a Palace initiative.

Every step Gloria takes in ensuring her political
survival merely shows her up as a true-blue mocker of
the Constitution and the rule of law and worse for
her, those unconstitutional steps she takes bring to
sharp national recollection the poll fraud that
occurred in 2004 to ensure her victory. It also brings
to sharp focus the futility of any clean polls as long
as Gloria stays on in Malacañang.

Already, Malacañang has been found to have
deliberately maneuvered the barangay assemblies,
intended as a cover to coerce and dupe barangay
residents and ghost residents into signing a uniformly
printed piece of paper agreeing to a shift from the
bicameral presidential system to the unicameral
presidential system and this without their having any
understanding of what they are doing.

The Palace mouthpieces all claim that Malacañang had
no hand in this, but no one believes that Malacañang
crap, since its hand is so evident in all aspects of
this move it calls Cha-cha that is being projected by
Gloria and her aides as the ?miracle? that would do
away with political bickering, political instability ?
and not to forget, bring about a change in the
economic system that would ensure the takeoff of the
economy. They in Malacañang must think the Filipinos
so stupid for the people to buy that grossly stupid
reasoning.

Of course Gloria and her aides worked this initiative,
and for a purpose: to ensure her continued stay in
Malacañang ? or so she thinks.

Where else would these barangays that delivered the
signatures, most of which are said to be faked, get
those uniformly printed document, if not from the
party in interest itself? And why should these
barangays that claim the money did not come from
Malacañang and its allies in the local government
units. Where did they get the money for the sound
system they put up, the printing of the Cha-cha
document, the refreshments given to those who attended
the assembly? From their barangay funds? But that
money is also public money and the law says no public
funds can be spent on such initiative. Besides, if
these barangays have that kind of money for such
grandiose assembly, it would have been better spent
for the needs of the barangay residents and the
barangay itself.

Reports are out that in exchange for their signatures,
the signatories were given either money, or a
half-sack of rice, or even PhilHealth cards and other
things besides, which is no different from the way
Gloria conducted her presidential campaign. Remember
her distribution of health cards and her give-aways of
sacks and sacks of rice, as well as money to get
people to attend her rallies?

And this early, since it is much too evident that most
of the signatures are fake ? since it is clearly
impossible to get four million signatures even on a
national barangay assembly scale as it stands to
reason, assuming that there were discussions on these
changes in the Charter that not all of those who
attended and signed were for the initiative ? as poll
officers are already being bribed to verify the
signatures for a fee, such as P5 per signature
verified.

Why even pay the poll officers to verify the
signatures if these were authentic anyway?

But then again, wasn?t this type of fraud also done in
Mindanao in 2004, where, as stated by a Gloria-paid
operator caught on print and video, money was paid to
poll officers in the municipal and provincial levels
to change the vote count in Gloria?s favor?

When will all this cheating and deception ever stop?

Gloria keeps on talking about the need to uphold the
Constitution, and the rule of law, yet every step she
and her allies in the House take is in clear violation
of the Constitution and a complete disregard for the
rule of law.

But, as she always gets away with it, and with nary a
slap on the wrist from the Supreme Court, what else
can be expected?

But if the high court can?t tell her off, the people
will have to do it, even if they have to lower her
political casket 12 feet deep.