Rainbow forces unite against con-ass in Makati City rally

Political groups of nearly every color finally found common cause yesterday: opposition to the constituent assembly route to charter change. Ideological foes who rarely find themselves in the same room together shared a common stage on Ayala Avenue in Makati. Bayan and Akbayan, EDSA Dos veterans and pro-Erap forces -- all converged in the same historic spot to denounce what is widely perceived to be political maneuvering in Congress to extend President Gloria Arroyo's hold on power. Live television top shots of the rally in the evening showed a dense crowd that stretched in various directions from the Ninoy Aquino statue on the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue. Estimates ranged from 6,000 (PNP) to 20,000 ( Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay). Among the prominent personalities who marched to Ayala were senators who will be left out of the constituent assembly approved by the House of Representatives last week. Several senators also happen to be nearly certain candidates for high office in the 2010 elections, which would be canceled if term limits were abolished by the constituent assembly formed by the House.

Two of the most popular critics of President Arroyo, former presidents Cory Aquino and Joseph Estrada, were both absent, sending messages instead to be read by family members. Aquino has been ailing and Estrada was enroute to the Middle East for a public engagement with OFWs. "There is nothing that causes me greater pain than to see our people betrayed again and again by those they elected," said Mrs. Aquino in her statement read by her grandson Kiko Aquino Dee. Aquino called on Arroyo to resign in the wake of the Hello Garci revelations that convinced many Filipinos that she cheated in the 2004 elections. Estrada's message read in part: “Hindi ang Saligang-Batas ang nangangailangan ng pagbabago, kung hindi ang gobyernong tiwali [A corrupt government, and not the Constitution, should be changed]." The protest crowd also included large numbers mobilized by the Catholic church, other religious groups, and university-based organizations. Many protesters wore masks in keeping with the swine flu times, but emblazoned them with protest messages such as "No to con-ass." The gravity of the cause did nothing to dampen the traditional festiveness of protests on Ayala Avenue, the site of the so-called confetti revolution in the 1980s that eventually brought down the dictator Marcos. Popular Internet and media character Juana Change, actress Mae Paner in real life, entertained the crowd with her protest humor. Former senator Franklin Drilon and friends were seen brandishing braids of garlic to drive away the "con-asswang." One other highlight was the venerable nun Sister Mary John Mananzan calling on Babaylan spirits to lay a curse on President Arroyo, then making the crowd laugh with her sheepish admission that it was the first time she had ever cursed anyone. In between hosting guests in the Palace, including recent Cannes Film Festival best director awardee Brillante Mendoza, President Arroyo was reported to be monitoring the rally on television. A similar mammoth rally in the Luneta in 1998 reportedly helped convince then-President Fidel Ramos to abandon his cha-cha dance. Ramos was much more popular then than Gloria Arroyo is now. GMANews.TV