‘Poverty is main motivation of people’s initiative’

Poverty is what primarily motivated the 10 million Filipinos to get behind the people’s initiative movement to amend the 1987 Constitution, advocates of Charter change said yesterday.

"Grumbling stomachs and lack of jobs compelled the people to act on their own. Aside from political discontent, economics is the primary motivating element why 10 million Filipinos opted for a people’s initiative," said Cha-cha advocacy commission (ad-com) chairman Lito Monico Lorenzana.

The movement pushing for the people’s initiative claimed to have gathered 10 million signatures for the petition that it will file for verification with the election commission.

Lorenzana said the poor have long been waiting to be liberated from poverty but are unfortunately always caught in the middle of political strife.

"For 100 years, the war on poverty has always been defeated, and not even the best minds and technocrats in government have brilliant suggestions to end poverty. Why? Because we have an undernourished and aging presidential system that failed to bring long-term solutions. In other words, the presidential setup has not worked for us," Lorenzana said.

According to the ad-com, poverty remains a serious national problem despite measures adopted by previous administrations to improve the economic and social condition of 70 percent of the 84 million Filipinos who are now living below the poverty line.

Lorenzana said economic development in the country has not advanced as much as in other neighboring Southeast Asian countries that have unicameral-parliamentary governments.

"I believe today is the best time to rethink the poverty problem. Let’s start the discussions and debates how a unicameral-parliamentary system can help the poor by way of generating more jobs and enticing businesses to invest in the Philippines," he said.

Lorenzana also said the people’s initiative was fueled by what they perceive as a patent disregard of religious and political leaders to mitigate the growing poverty in the cities and the countryside.

"The poor are always being lectured about the dignity of work and not to rely on government doleouts or welfare but where is work?" Lorenzana asked.

He noted the country is suffering from a shortage in job opportunities as big foreign companies find it more attractive to relocate to China which has liberal economic policies as compared to the Philippines with its restrictive economic policies enshrined in its Constitution.

Meanwhile, Lorenzana said the proposal of the group "One Voice" to "discontinue the people’s initiative" was a "snobbish and elitist remark to paralyze and kill the legitimate efforts of citizens to assert their right in amending the Constitution" via that mode.

"I’m sorry to disappoint them, but the people’s initiative has taken a life of its own. It is too late for anyone to stop the people’s initiative. Ten million people have already spoken," he said.

Lorenzana dared: "If they want to bulldoze the petition, I encourage them to go through the right legal channels."

‘Open your mind’

Ad-com, meanwhile, has called on the youth to have an open mind on moves to amend the Constitution, saying they would be one of the beneficiaries of the shift to a unicameral parliamentary system of government.

"This change to the parliamentary system is not for us… This is really for the future generation, this is really for the youth, nothing else," said AdCom member Atty. Romela Bengzon during an open forum at the San Sebastian College Recoletos in Manila yesterday.

Bengzon said she was invited by San Sebastian College to give the students, especially those of voting age, a clear view on the benefits of Charter change.

"It is a part of our information drive towards an informed consent of the Filipino people if this pushes to the plebiscite," Bengzon said.

She said this was her third time to speak before the members of academe on what could be the effect of the shift to a parliamentary form of government.

Bengzon said she has previously done advocacy campaign among the presidents of state colleges and universities in the country and the students of the Ateneo de Manila University.

The commission aimed to inform the Filipino on what does a parliamentary form of government mean, she said. — With Helen Flores