On June 2, Tuesday, the House of Representatives here approved House Resolution (HR) 1109 which allows Congress to convene itself as a Constituent Assembly aka ConAss, thereby giving them the authority to propose amendments to the Philippine Constitution. Critics of HR 1109 are pointing their fingers at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) as the one responsible behind the move to change the Charter in order to prolong her stay in power. As GMA’s term as President nears its end, observers have been second-guessing the different routes she might take in order to lengthen her stay in the political limelight and expand her political might. Changing the Constitution chiefly for this purpose is one. Another way, which many are anticipating, is for her to run for a Congressional seat in the upcoming election in 2010 when her term as President expires. After securing a seat in the Lower House, analysts suggest that her allies in Congress will propose amending the Charter to abolish Congress and the Senate and collapse the bicameral House of Representatives into a single parliament where Gloria will be elected as Prime Minister.
I know that this theory sounds a little far-fetched but I am willing to believe this for now as under the scandal-ridden rule of GMA, truth has proven to be much stranger than fiction. How incredulous indeed it is that in the many corruption scandals that she has been mired in, neither she nor her family and those close to her has ever been held accountable? There was the “Hello Garci” scandal which clearly caught her red-handed making calls to then Commission on Election (COMELEC) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano aka Garci on how she could fraudulently get a million more votes in the 2004 Presidential elections. Then there was the building of the Diosdado Macapagal Highway, which was named after her father and turned out to be an over-priced contract costing the Filipino people Php 1 Billion per kilometer. This was followed by the USD 329 Million National Broadband Network controversy which awarded that ludicrous amount of money to a Chinese company also known as ZTE to manage the government’s broadband needs and supposedly improve its communications capabilities. Let us also not forget the Php 5 Billion overpriced North Rail project and the Php 728 Million fertilizer fund scam, where millions of the people’s money was used to fund GMA’s presidential campaign in 2004.
GMA’s list of crimes against the Filipino people goes on and on in fact and her political maneuverings to amend the Constitution to keep her in power, as the cliché goes, are just the tip of the iceberg. Well sorry for her, the people are not having it. Tomorrow, June 10, Wednesday, they will stand up and show their disgust. Tomorrow they will hold her responsible. Tomorrow they will try not only to tip that iceberg but make it crumble and make her pay for all the sins that she has committed against the nation. Tomorrow will be a national day of protest against this corrupt and venal government. Tomorrow there will be rallies against ConAss in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Tomorrow we will troop to the streets and say to Gloria once more, “ENOUGH!”
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