GMA’s Cha-Cha, Repression Hit in Independence Day Rally

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Posted 11:15 p.m., June 12, 2006

Religious leaders, opposition politicians, and militant groups assailed the charter change being pushed by the Arroyo administration – as well as what was described as the climate of repression – during an inter-faith prayer rally commemorating Independence Day at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila earlier today.

“We won freedom from the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Japanese,” said Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodcoro Bacani, Jr. “But we have not won freedom from the Arroyo regime.”

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), made a similar observation in a statement he sent, which was read by Fr. Joe Dizon of Kairos Philippines:

“We celebrate today the Philippine Independence Day with gratitude for everything that has been in our history. We honor the heroes big and small, known and unknown, who have worked for our liberation as a nation.
 
 “But while we succeeded in breaking the yoke and chain of Spanish, Japanese and American colonizers, are we succeeding in breaking the yoke and chain of fellow Filipinos?”

Bacani further denounced what was described as the lack of civil liberties under the Arroyo regime. “They say we are free, but if we speak and act in protest against this government, we cannot be sure whether we would remain free the next day,” he said.

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., meanwhile, dismissed the proposed shift in the form of government from presidential to parliamentary as “not the solution” to the country’s woes. “The solution lies in virtuous leadership,” he pointed out.

Lagdameo also said the CBCP was not opposed to charter change per se, but was against charter change by the present Congress convening as a constituent assembly.

“From history we learn that dictators are products of and supported by parliamentary forms of government,” Lagdameo said.

In a statement distributed during the rally, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) chairperson Dr. Carol Araullo said there was nothing to celebrate because the country has no real independence.

“What independence do we have when the Arroyo regime traitorously wishes to undermine further our national sovereignty, patrimony and territorial integrity through the proposed charter change?” Araullo said in her statement.

Among the personalities who graced the occasion were former executive secretary Oscar Orbos, former Transportation and Communications Secretary Josie Lichauco, Manila Vice Mayor Danny Lacuna, San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, and Sen. Jamby Madrigal.

The prayer rally, which was attended by thousands of people from Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon, was officiated by leaders from Catholic and Protestant churches, as well as by Muslim and even Hindu leaders. The ralliers, numbering around 10,000, gathered at assembly points along Taft Avenue in Manila and at the Welcome Rotunda, the boundary between Manila and Quezon City, and marched towards Liwasang Bonifacio. Bulatlat

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