Battle versus Cha-cha not over, says Satur

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Philippines -- Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo has appealed for more vigilance against any effort to keep President Macapagal-Arroyo in power beyond the end of her term in 2010.

Ocampo warned the public that the President and her allies have not given up even on the smallest of options to retain her political reign.

Speaking in a forum here on Tuesday, Ocampo said the opposition to Charter change should continue because while the proponents of Charter change, through constituent assembly (Con-ass) and constitutional convention (Con-con), might have slowed down their efforts or have been divided lately, Malacañang has "not explicitly stated" where it stood on the issue.

In Congress, he said the number of congressmen supporting the Con-ass route has gone down.

Ocampo said the House committee on constitutional amendments preferred doing it through a constitutional convention by voting the representatives during the 2010 elections.

"It appears that they're leaving it to the next administration and the 15th Congress to amend the Charter," he said.

Ocampo credited the fading of support for a constituent assembly to the concerted efforts of various groups that pressured their representatives, and the outpouring of public grief for the death of democracy icon Corazon Aquino and support for her legacy of democracy.

It was during the leadership of Aquino (who was catapulted to the presidency via a People Power revolution in 1986 that toppled the Marcos dictatorship) that the 1987 Constitution or the so-called "Freedom Constitution" was drafted, which restored the basic human rights and the civil and political rights of all Filipinos as citizens.

After following a nomination process, Aquino appointed the 50 members who comprised the Constitutional Commission that drafted the Constitution, which was later ratified overwhelmingly by the voters in a plebiscite.

Since the 2010 elections are near, Ocampo warned the Arroyo administration might use the pork barrel (countrywide development funds) to force legislators belonging to the administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD to push through with Charter change.

Ocampo said the last option for Ms Arroyo would be to ensure that, despite the cracks in the Lakas-Kampi-CMD merger, she would maintain an absolute majority of Congress where she was expected to run for a seat as a representative of the second district of Pampanga in 2010.

"GMA (Ms Arroyo) has not given up even [on] the smallest of options. If her party gets the absolute majority, then she'll stay in power," he said.

Arroyo is the titular head of the Lakas-Kampi CMD party.

Critics fear that Ms Arroyo was running for a Congress seat in preparation for a shift to a parliamentary form of government, with a unicameral Congress, in which she could run for the seat of prime minister.

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