Labor groups support people’s initiative

While the opposition is against moves for Charter change, labor groups are for it.

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) have given their full support for and endorsement of efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution and signed off on the petition seeking Charter change through a people’s initiative.

TUCP president Democrito Mendoza and TUCP executive vice president Cecilio Seno led the signing of the people’s initiative petition yesterday.

The signing of the people’s initiative petition was witnessed by 500 TUCP area officers and members, as well as Sigaw ng Bayan Movement (SBM) spokesman Raul Lambino.

The ALU and the TUCP are made up of 34 national and local labor unions with a total membership of one million workers. These labor unions’ support is seen by the SBM as a "moral and democratic victory" for the people’s initiative, Lambino said.

As this developed, Lambino has asked the government to provide protection for SBM volunteers who have received death threats for advocating the gathering of 12 million signatures from registered Filipino voters for the people’s initiative.

"We appeal to the government because, after we went out to gather signatures, we received many threats and there were attempts to take the signature sheets from us," Lambino said during Vice President Noli de Castro’s weekly radio program "Para sa Iyo... Bayan."

"Because of this, we want to seek protection from local officials, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) so we can secure our volunteers," he said, adding that "it is also the government’s obligation to care for and protect the people who are pushing for a people’s initiative."

Lambino said protecting the signature sheets is very important because they will be submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as attachments when the signatures are put through the verification process.

"The opposition is really going around to retrieve (these signature sheets)," Lambino said, adding that the opposition is now conducting a house-to-house campaign to convince petition signatories to withdraw their signatures. "They are really determined to retrieve the signatures, so they are going house to house."

De Castro said the people’s initiative will be meaningful and responsive to the needs of the times only after an information campaign explaining the relevance of proposed Charter amendments is undertaken and completed.

"The next stop is the Commission on Elections (Comelec), followed by a plebiscite, then the ultimate destination, the shift from a presidential system to a parliamentary system of government," an enthusiastic Charter change advocacy leader told The STAR the other night.

The advocacy leader, who requested anonymity, said there are no more obstructions to Charter change, adding that they expect the final shift to a parliamentary system to take place before the year ends.

He said the signature drive has already exceeded the requirements set by the Constitution and, after the signatures are verified by the Comelec, a plebiscite will affirm the public clamor for amendments to the Charter.

"We have already got the required signatures, more than the requirement provided for by the Constitution," Lambino claimed.

He issued his statement as some 2,000 youths held a torch parade along Morato Avenue in Quezon City to dramatize their full support of the people’s initiative being pursued across the country.

These youths represented various organizations from the cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay, the town of San Juan and other cities and municipalities in Metro Manila which had earlier held a symposium on the benefits that Charter change would provide to the youth.

Similar symposia will be held in key cities across the country. — Jaime Laude, Pia Lee-Brago