Charter change thru Con-ass can spark ‘violent revolution’

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    CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga- Former Pres. Joseph Estrada has warned the Arroyo administration of “dangling” government funds to “buy the loyalty and allegiance of local officials” amid the proposed Charter change via a constitutional assembly or Con-ass.

    Speaking before some 800 members of the Philippine League of Secretaries to the Sanggunian, Inc, here the other day, Estrada warned of the possibility of a “violent revolution” if the government insists on changing the Constitution via the pending Con-ass.

    Quoting the late US Pres. Kennedy as saying that “those who make a peaceful revolution impossible will make a violent revolution inevitable”, Estrada said “kung ipipilit nila ang Con-ass, baka ito mangyari. (that if they insist on Con-ass, this might happen).

     “In the coming months, we can expect that public funds will be used as leverage to secure support for a perverted and pernicious Charter change that do not at all represent the will or the interest of our people,” he said.

    Estrada said that the Arroyo administration has allegedly been “dangling” the Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) of local governments “to bring local officials to the side of the administration.”

    “They (IRA) should not be used to buy the loyalty or allegiance of local officials,” he said.

    Estrada said that the “Local Government Code that was enacted when I was senator is now being drifted and circumvented. The IRA for local government units are not only declining, they are also being hostaged by Malacanang as a bargaining chip so that local officials will be beholden”.

    He recalled that when he was president, “I made it my policy to increase the IRA of local government units. We also saw to it that it is released without any conditions whether you are with the opposition or with the administration. I never used IRA to bribe leaders in local government for my personal interest”.

    Estrada said “there are elaborate and sinister intentions to subvert the provisions of the Constitution in the lower house of Congress”

    “Charter change is now being used to secure the interest of an administration that has failed our people. This follows a long list of serial and systematic violation of the Constitution committed by this administration for the past eight years,” he said.

    He urged Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa) “to lead in the strongest terms the opposition and public protest against these flagrant violations of the Constitution.”

    “It is time to walk your talk, end your silence and express our collective outrage to oppose and resist another brewing violation of our Charter,” he told his audience.

    Estrada challenged Filipinos “to express your collective disapproval of Charter change through a constituent assembly instead of a constitutional convention.”


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