MANILA, PH - ‘The proposed Charter is a funeral dance to the grave and hell.’
In an advocacy forum spearheaded by the UST Sociological Society on the 13th of April at the Civil Law Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas, former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. strongly asserted that charter change would be the gravest pitfall of the Filipino peoples whilst a ‘paradise’ to many politicians.
Davide says that it is politically and socially irrelevant to change the 1987 Charter while aligning it to the proposed federal government structure by the administration.
"What is being promised in this charter change is not actually federalism,… but a so-called new paradise for politicians," he said.
“For the people, [this] new paradise would be hell… a funeral dance to the grave and hell, but ‘tis a heaven for the power-hungry bureaucrats and politicians" he added.
Davide said this "paradise" will extend the terms of incumbent officials, lift term limits, allow a president to seek re-election, and lift restrictions on the president's power to proclaim martial law.
Former Chief Justices affirmed Davide’s analysis that such ‘new paradise’ will prolong the term of offices of incumbent officials, lifting their limits while aligned to the discarded restrictions on the Presidential powers to declare martial law and to declare re-elections.
Davide defer from lifting of citizenship restrictions in the economic provisions and national patrimony of the proposed Charter. "[This] would end up in the outright surrender of the Philippines to foreigners at no cost to them. .. [Philpppines] might as well just become a province of China," he said.
The Anti-Chacha forum, along with former Chief Justice Davide and Atty. Florin Hilbay, urged the students to mobilize and mass critique the implications of charter change in the current context of Philippine governance.
By French Vivien T. Templonuevo
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