Palace told: Focus on economy not on Chacha

MANILA, Philippines - A business group admonished Malacañang Friday to prove its claim it will focus on the economy and not Charter change. In a newspaper ad, the Management Association of the Philippines chided Malacañang for its complacency in insisting the country is shielded from the global crisis. "The urgency with which the administration-controlled congress is rushing Charter change, even to the extent of bypassing the Senate, can only be interpreted as a move to amend the Constitution in order to allow Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to remain in power as president or as prime minister under a parliamentary form of government," it said in an ad titled "No to Chacha," placed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. MAP said that while it is important to review provisions in the 1987 Constitution that need to be changed, the present time calls for strengthening the economy. All claims that the Philippines is sheltered from the global crisis will be "foolish complacency," it said. "Congress must focus instead on passing bills to strengthen and grow the economy. The executive branch must focus on ways of sheltering our country and our people from the worst effects of the global crisis. It would be a foolish complacency to believe that the Philippines is sheltered from this crisis, it is not," it said. The group appealed to national and local government officials, senators and congressmen to "set aside their personal and partisan ambitions to focus on the job at hand." It said this is to pass bills and implement executive actions that will create jobs, strengthen the economy, protect the workers, support families, and address the financial crisis. On the other hand, MAP said a serious review of the Constitution is important, but it is so important that it deserves full and careful attention. "This is not the time to do so when the financial crisis that is engulfing the world has reached a depth and breadth unprecedented in our lifetime and we are all grappling with what to do to keep our families, our companies, and our country afloat. It is also not the time to test the constitutionality of doing so via a constituent assembly," it said. Any changes should not be rushed but should be studied with great care, discussed with due deliberation, and then submitted to the people for their ratification, it said. MAP warned that forcing Charter change especially through a constituent assembly can spark discontent and outrage. "Charter change at this time is an explosive and divisive issue that can spark discontent and nationwide outrage and can only worsen the possible effects of the global crisis on our people if it is pushed through a constituent assembly," it said. It said that if changes in the Constitution are needed, it should be done through an elected constitutional convention, and "after elections in 2010." CARP not Chacha Earlier, a Manila bishop suggested to Congress that instead of pursuing Charter change, they should pursue the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program instead. Manila auxiliary bishop Broderick Pabillo made the appeal to lawmakers, particularly Charter change (Chacha) proponents, in the wake of farmers' marching for their land. "That's the problem with them. If a thing is self-serving, they immediately act on it such as this Cha-cha. But if it's for the farmers and the poor, it would either take them a very long time to act on it or they just reject it," Pabillo said in a statement posted late Thursday night on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website. Pabillo who chairs the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa), added that if government can act on Chacha with great speed, there is no reason why it cannot also do the same thing with CARP. He said the bishops' leadership has long been appealing to the government to extend CARP for the sake of the farmers. "There have been a lot of instances where injustices are being done to farmers such as what happened to the farmers in Bicol whose certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) were cancelled," he said. The same thing also happened to the Calatagan farmers in Batangas, he added. "The Calatagan farmers marched here to Manila because their CLOA has been cancelled also. So, we see here that the gains of land reform are being removed--the reason why they are pushing for the extension and reform of this CARP," he said. The bishops have been calling on the legislators to approve the extension of CARP with reforms to allow the completion of distribution of the remaining 1.8 hectares of "CARPable" lands to farmers. - GMANews.TV