Bayan chides lawmakers to dismiss Cha-cha, urges public to register and vote in 2010 elections

Press Release

May 13, 2009

Davao City- Faced with the worsening global financial crisis, Bayan said here to today that the members of the Lower House should instead make resolutions to resolve the crisis rather than insist on changing the constitution.

Bayan also urged the public to assert their right to suffrage by having themselves registered with the Commission on Elections and to ensure that their votes are casted and counted during the 2010 elections.

“Be it through House Speaker Nograles’ HR No. 737 or Congressman Villafuerte’s HR No. 1109, the debate on changing the constitution is not about choosing the mode in doing so but the intentions of those who want to railroad charter change before the 2010 elections,” Bayan-SMR spokesperson John Birondo said.

“Straight from the horse’s mouth, the proponents of charter change have said the possibility of retaining Gloria Arroyo’s top post in a parliamentary form of government if in case she wins as prime minister,” Birondo added.

“Come the time that the constitution is changed giving way to a parliamentary form of government, who do we expect to dominate as members of the parliament? Who alone shall have the right to elect the prime minster?” Birondo raised.

“There is no genuine change in everything that Gloria Arroyo and her allies are adamantly pushing now. We will have the same corrupt and immoral government leaders with these kinds of people dominating the parliament,” Birondo stressed.

Birondo added that the initiative to change the constitution is no more than an attempt to prolong Gloria Arroyo’s stint in Malacañang, to ensure her the immunity from lawsuits and to intensify foreign dictates to our economic policies.

“Criminal charges await Gloria Arroyo by the end of her term for all her involvements to corruption and extrajudicial killings. Without the power and influence, Gloria Arroyo could now imagine herself spending the rest of her life behind bars,” Birondo said.

Bayan sustains Alston’s implication of Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on continuing political killings

Press Release

May 9, 2009

Davao City – Bayan said here today that the grounds laid by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston in his report realistically imply Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on the worsening extrajudicial killings in the country, her, being the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The notion that the AFP is behind the killings and abductions of political activists all over the country is a fact that has long been proven by circumstantial evidences of the crimes, actual accounts of the witnesses and of the victims themselves and their families,” Bayan-SMR spokesperson John Birondo said.

Birondo added the divulged Oplan Bantay Laya of the AFP and PNP which counterinsurgency machineries are designed to liquidate members and leaders of progressive groups whom it accuses as legal fronts of the communist revolutionary movement.

Bayan noted that in Southern Mindanao alone, only within the 2008 time-frame, Arroyo government has committed more than 300 cases of human rights violations victimizing 30,857 individuals and 4,802 families.

“It is not only necessary to demand for Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on the crimes because of the so- called chain of command. More importantly, Gloria Arroyo should be made accountable along with the leaders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as they have deliberately and nonsensically killed and abducted innocent civilians and are relentless in committing such heinous crimes,” Birondo exclaimed.

Bayan condemned the killing of Ludinio Monson last April 29 whose anti-mining advocacy in Boston, New Bataan, caused hindrances in the operation of foreign-owned transnational mining companies in the area.

“Ludinio Monson, like any other victims of political killings in the country was killed because he was actively working for the protection of the environment, human rights, and the people’s welfare. It is always a fight against the government when what is being fought for is justice and equality,” Birondo said.

Bayan also hit the proposed reward system of the Arroyo government for informants of extrajudicial killings which would need P25 million from the congressmen’s pork barrels.

“It is blatant hypocrisy for Gloria Arroyo to say she is sincere in resolving extrajudicial killings when she cannot even act on allegations that involved the armed forces in the killings that are happening all these years. The Arroyo government has gone farther in making it possible for Jovito Palparan, a known butcher of activists, to secure a seat in Congress,” Birondo said.

“Not only the proposal sounds so poor based on propaganda value, this is yet, another scheme of the Arroyo administration to corrupt the people’s money,” Birondo added.

“The Arroyo government is bound to be faulty as it can never be a government for the people. The state will always be the people’s enemy unless genuine societal changes are done for genuine land reform and industrialization,” Birondo added.

“And for as long as there is oppression, the people will inevitably fight back. The people’s resistance against the government’s anti-people policies makes the killings, abductions, and other human rights violations more inevitable for the Arroyo government to commit for its protection and survival,” Birondo said.