People Power and the Transition Council as
Alternative
By the Gloria
Step Down Movement (GSM)
Posted by
Bulatlat
In these times of
political crisis, turmoil and uncertainty, one thing stands clear: Mrs.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) must go. However there is yet no consensus
as to how she will be made to step down and who or what must replace her
government.
Indeed, there is some truth to the observation that had there been wide
agreement on this, another people power uprising would have erupted and
ousted Mrs. Arroyo by now. Putting it another way, the sooner a consensus
is reached by the various groups calling and working for her removal, on
how and what will replace her regime, the sooner Mrs. Arroyo will be
removed from office.
Affirming people power
The government and its apologists and defenders warn the public against
resorting to any “unconstitutional” means of unseating and replacing the
ruling regime. They equate “unconstitutional” to anarchy, chaos, violence,
etc. as though the current turmoil has not been caused both by blatantly
unconstitutional anomalies and criminal acts perpetrated by those in
power.
They deliberately obscure the fact that People Power 1 and 2 were
themselves extra constitutional undertakings. Aquino declared her new
government a “revolutionary” one and decreed an interim “Freedom
Constitution”. On the other hand, Arroyo insisted that her ascendance to
the presidency was due to constitutional succession even as the ouster of
Estrada was itself extra constitutional.
But there is a growing number of Filipinos who are open to the idea of a
transition government that will do away with the constitutional
presidential succession in case Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resigns or is
ousted from Malacañang.
There is as well a growing consensus among many groups calling for the
ouster of GMA that the best and most plausible way to override or break
away from the “constitutional” process is through the formation of a
“transition council” that will pave the way for the creation of a new form
of government, and the election of a new administration that would be more
representative of and accountable to the people and thus more responsive
to the people’s interests.
It is an idea that has gained significant ground over the past weeks.
This is because nobody wants to go through all the trouble of deposing
Mrs. Arroyo just to install Noli de Castro, the supposed constitutional
successor, as president. Neither is the option of a snap election under a
transition government presided over by the Senate President acceptable,
the people having lost all trust and confidence in the COMELEC; in fact,
on the entire electoral process as we know it.
It is also an idea whose time has come. It springs from the widespread
realization that more profound changes -- not merely of corrupt and
unwanted leaders, not just of the rotten electoral process, but of the
entire social, political and economic system are necessary to lift our
nation out of the morass of corruption, debt, spiraling prices, poverty,
underdevelopment and violence. This sentiment is often expressed as
frustration, disillusionment and even disgust over the governments
installed by people power.
The people’s realization of the need for systemic reforms has maliciously
been misrepresented by the GMA government and its apologists as “people
power fatigue” or the supposed rejection of people power as a way out of
the present crisis. On the contrary, it indicates a simple yet profound
understanding that people power must aim for more than what it has
achieved in the past. It shows that the people’s political consciousness
has in fact significantly risen from the levels of Edsa 1 and 2.
We believe that what the people want is a people power that will lead to
more substantial reforms. That will impact not only on their daily lives
but also on the collective good of the nation and the future of
generations to come.
On the People’s Agenda
It is not people power that we are dismayed with or tired of.
The people are tired of paying taxes, whether these be direct income taxes
or indirect taxes paid through ever-increasing prices of basic goods and
services, only to see that government revenues are spent on
ever-increasing debt service, fat commissions and kickbacks from
government contracts, vote-buying and rigging elections and the pursuit of
bloody yet fruitless counter-insurgency programs. We are revolted by the
shameless and brazen graft and corruption up to the highest reaches of the
Arroyo government, considering that the people had installed it in power
through a people’s uprising against corruption. We want a sound fiscal
policy and a clean and honest bureaucracy that will not plunder the
national coffers and bleed our people dry.
We are sick and tired of claims that our farmers are benefiting from the
land reform program, when all around us we see supposed farmer
beneficiaries being evicted from or dispossessed of their plots as these
are converted into golf courses, subdivisions, commercial and industrial
estates. We want genuine land reform that will free our tillers from
serfdom and poverty, thereby vesting them with real democratic rights and
liberate the economy from the clutches of feudalism.
We are dismayed by successive administrations’ servility to foreign
capital accelerating the removal of protective tariffs and barriers in the
name of “globalization”, thereby stifling the growth and eventually
killing off domestic industries and causing widespread joblessness. We are
appalled by government’s schemes to amend the Constitution in order to
grant foreigners the same rights Filipinos have in exploiting and
profiting from our national patrimony. We want a robust industrial economy
truly free from foreign domination and control.
We condemn rampant criminality, especially the involvement of officials
and law enforcers in criminal activities, and the use of extra-judicial
killings and other brutal and illegal coercive measures to suppress civil
liberties and democratic rights. We want peace and order to reign over
our land, so that each one may enjoy the fruits of his or her labor.
We oppose the Arroyo government’s blind support for the US-led “war on
terror”. We shall continue to resist attempts to institute and employ
draconian repressive measures to suppress protest and to curtail the bill
of rights under the guise of countering “international and domestic
terrorism”. We shall continue to seek and demand justice for the victims
of such measures, including extra-judicial killings and harassments of
mass leaders, journalists, and activists. We want peace based on justice.
We want no more of sham elections with rampant violence, vote buying and
the wastage of government funds; where consequently only the rich and the
powerful can win and the people are left with no real choices. We want an
electoral process and political system where the poor and marginalized
have a fair chance of being represented and their concerns heard and
addressed by government.
We seek a government that would be truly representative of the people,
especially the majority of the toiling masses and responsive to their
needs in these difficult timesone that could unite and lead us in our
arduous quest for freedom, democracy and social justice.
The “transition council” can pave the way to such an alternative
government.
On the Transition Council as an alternative
There is as yet no consensus on the concept of an interim or transition
group/committee/council as an alternative form of government. This is a
matter that must be addressed cognizant of the fact that without the
requisite consensus on how to remove Mrs. Arroyo from power, all talk of
alternatives is at best premature; at worst, divisive. Yet there is need
and basis for describing the kind of transition council the people will
identify with and embrace.
Such a transition council or government must necessarily be composed
mainly of representatives of those groups that had worked the hardest for
the ouster of the current regime, with due consideration to their size and
political significance. Conceivably it will consist of representatives of
the opposition, the militant democratic mass movement, the organizations
of professionals, patriotic businessmen and other middle forces, and some
of the retired military and police officers who enjoy the confidence of
the active military and police forces.
It is perforce a civilian authority that is supreme to the armed forces
and the police. Consequently any form of military or civilian-military
junta is unacceptable and must be ejected.
Representatives of workers, peasants, women, youth and national minorities
should be adequately and properly represented. It is something that must
be struggled for by these sectors of society together with adherents from
the middle classes and the political forces they lead.
But we must be realistic and come to terms with the fact that the ouster
or resignation of Mrs. Arroyo cannot, by and of itself, dismantle the
system of elite rule in this country. Thus it will not be progressives and
mass-based leaders of the people who will be dominant in the transition
council but traditional politicians and their allies who retain their
basic allegiance to the status quo. In effect, the ouster or resignation
of Arroyo in favor of a transition council will not resolve everything but
it can be a good beginning.
This is especially so if the transition government is able to put up and
unify the country on a program that is pro-Filipino, pro-people and biased
for the poor, deprived and oppressed. It shall then prepare for and
oversee, in a fixed and reasonable length of time, a free, fair, honest
and truly democratic election process that will allow the people to choose
their new executive and legislative leaders.
It can also call for the election of delegates to a Constitutional
Convention (ConCon) that would in no way be similar to the “chacha” scheme
of Mrs. Arroyo, former President Fidel Ramos and Speaker Jose de Venecia
to change the Constitution for their vested interests. Such a
constitutional convention should draft a patriotic and democratic Charter
that shall be ratified by the people.
The ConCon could institute wide-ranging reforms in the electoral and
political system including a shift to a parliamentary form of government
that would enlarge the chances of poor candidates to win a seat in the
Legislature, favor the development of party- and program-based politics
and reduce the gridlock between the Executive and Legislative branches of
government. It can also strengthen the pro-Filipino and pro-people
economic provisions of the Charter as well as its national sovereignty
provisions such as the nuclear- and bases-free provisions that have been
circumvented by new treaties and executive agreements like the Visiting
Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Mutual Logistics and Supply Agreement (MLSA).
How will the members of the transition council be chosen? In the first
place, the strongest and most effective parties and organizations in the
movement to force Mrs. Arroyo to resign, or in effect oust her from power,
will come to the fore through the large numbers of people they are able to
lead and influence, most especially to mount the mammoth mass actions that
will be indispensable, if not decisive, in deposing Mrs. Arroyo.
Negotiations are even now taking place among such parties and
organizations. They must constitute a convenors’ group that will then
apportion delegates to a people’s congress or consultative assembly. The
latter in turn shall select and acclaim the members of the transition
council in an open, transparent and democratic manner. This must be done
even before the Arroyo regime completely crumbles as we know it eventually
will.
Conclusion
Putting an end to the Arroyo regime is something we must all work for in
unity, with determination and fortitude. We in the middle forces must take
the side of the majority of our people and act now to tip the balance in
their favor, for our good as well as for the good of the entire nation.
Posted by Bulatlat
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