The President is right about Cha-cha

Last Friday evening, a police checkpoint terrified a certain Roger "Jojo" Rojo so much that he ended up taking six people, including children, hostage and eventually surrendered to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) under Superintendent Paul Labra II. It turned out that Rojo had with him an Ingram machine pistol and at the checkpoint, he panicked and used his weapon to take hostages. Rojo apparently was part of a gunrunning syndicate and we thought that his arrest would have been the end of the story. But not so!

Last Tuesday afternoon as Superintendent Labra was taking Rojo to identify and verify the hideout of his accomplices allegedly involved in many robberies in Metro Cebu, Rojo somehow was able to free himself from his handcuffs and grabbed the police officer’s weapon and pulled the trigger and in the ensuing melee, Rojo was shot dead by the police officers. So is this finally the end of this story? I think not. Already, people here are saying that Rojo may have been a victim of a "rubout." Shades of the Kuratong Baleleng… but yes, too often the police get accused of summary justice in the guise of a prisoner trying to escape… all because someone high wanted him silenced.

So the ball is now in the court of Superintendent Labra — whether he can explain why he personally brought Jojo Rojo to the hideout of his accomplices and how his prisoner was able to remove his cuffs. There’s no question that Rojo was caught with his Ingram machine pistol and took many people hostage and that he may have been involved in other robberies in Metro Cebu. So we should even hail the police for eliminating another bad element in our society, but Superintendent Labra has a lot of convincing to do. The only thing going for Superintendent Labra is that his reputation precedes him… he has helped solve many crimes in Cebu, including the celebrated shooting of radioman Choy Torralba which turned out to be a love triangle.

* * *

I fully concur with the statement of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) that "it’s now or never for Charter change" a.k.a. Cha-cha. Indeed, back when then President Fidel V. Ramos wanted to dance the Cha-cha, his critics said that it wasn’t timely as FVR would only use it to extend his limited presidential term. Now that GMA is pushing for Cha-cha early in her term, her critics are once more throwing the monkey wrench into this plan in an obviously orchestrated move to prevent anyone from changing the Charter.

Congressman Gilbert Teodoro came out suggesting that it should be the Filipino people who ought to decide on whether we need to change our Constitution or not through a referendum! Hey wait! Wasn’t this the same Rep. Gilbert Teodoro who wanted to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. last November? Mind you, it is very easy to fall into this trap… declaring that the Filipino people ought to decide their fate. But what we really need today is someone who would take up the cudgels for the people and make decisions for them. This is the characteristic of a true leader and that someone is President Arroyo!

While we submit that democracy means the rule of the majority, any referenda for Cha-cha should come only when the new Constitution is finished and it is through this referendum that the Filipino people will accept a new Constitution or not! I suspect what Rep. Teodoro is doing is merely putting the brakes on the proposed Charter changes to make these changes very difficult to achieve. I would like to believe that this is part and parcel of a ploy to derail any plans for a constitutional convention (con-con). One congressman says we can’t afford it, while another says we should hand it over to the Filipino people to decide.

But these people are so transparent, we can see through them… that their real plan is for Congress to convene into a constituent assembly (con-ass)… in the guise of speeding up the process at a very low cost. If you ask me, the changing of our Constitution is a major overhaul of the system and should not be left to the whims and caprices of our congressmen. Just look at what happened the last time we made so much haste… 49 people hatched the 1987 kilometric and obviously flawed Cory Constitution.

Last Tuesday, I met the comeback kid, Rep. Eddie Gullas, and he told me that he would file a bill proposing a constitutional convention (con-con) no matter how unpopular this move is in Congress. Yes, EddieGul knows too well that most congressmen want the Constitution changed through a con-ass. But Rep. Gullas knows that a con-ass is very unpopular to the Filipino people because the majority wants a con-con. Indeed, a con-con should be called together with next year’s barangay elections and Congress should prepare a budget for this endeavor and we should educate Filipinos on the merits of a federal system.

The truth of the matter is the majority of the Filipino people who are supposed to decide on this issue, don’t even know what the hell we’re talking about! When my dear friend, ABS-CBN reporter Gigi Grande, interviewed many of the masa last Monday, they didn’t even know what the issues were all about. Frankly speaking, I knew this long ago… but one thing is sure, our people need leaders who can bring them out of this vicious cycle of poverty, which has only bred more and more Filipinos not only to be poor, but to be uneducated as well. Not many people realize that our centralized form of government is part of the unjust socio-political structures that need to be dismantled for our provinces to attain sustainable progress and growth in the midst of our cultural diversity. The President is right; we should do this immediately!

These times call for true leadership and statesmanship! It should be the noblest, the brightest and the greatest among us Filipinos who ought to seize the moment and point our ship of state into the right direction for the betterment of this nation. It is the captain of the ship and his crew who should steer it away from troubled waters… not the passengers who know nothing about navigating a ship! If a high school dropout like Fernando Poe Jr. nearly won the presidency, it was due to the support of the Filipino masa who identifies with FPJ’s lack of education. But if you ask me, the masa isn’t entirely hopeless. It is crystal clear that the masa here in Cebu, despite poverty, is better educated than counterparts in Metro Manila because the masa in Cebu voted for President Arroyo, while the masa in Manila voted for FPJ. Indeed, in Cebu, even our masa is smarter than Manila’s masa!

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.