Statement: Joint statement against Con-Ass

We, the workers and masses of this nation are appalled by the move of the GMA administration executed by their minions in the Lower Chamber of Congress last June 2, 2009, the ramming through of HR 1109, a resolution convening Congress as a Constituent Assembly to change the 1987 Constitution. It was a classic tale of thieves at work in the middle of the night. According to numerous sources, the crime was worth P20 million per representative!

What is more sickening is that this administration could afford to give payola to these representa-thieves in a period where thousands of workers are getting retrenched and the poor getting hungrier.

We believe that this crime against the Filipino people was executed for two main reasons. First, for this administration and its cohorts to cling unto power at all cost and continue ravaging our nation’s coffer. As if 9 years in power for GMA and her minions is not enough! Secondly, to continue along the now defunct and proven inutile neo-liberal path of economic growth, through the lifting of economic provisions in the constitution that restrict full foreign ownership of our lands, natural resources and corporations. An economic formula that is part and parcel of the export oriented, import dependent economic design. The same economic design that has made our nation so vulnerable to the impacts of the global crisis, which today impacts heavily on us, the workers and poor masses of this nation.

This act of the Lower House of Congress, supported by the GMA administration, should be condemned and fought in the highest degree.

Clearly, the Filipino workers and poor masses can no longer rely on the present system. There are talks that even the Supreme Court will decide and act favorably to the GMA administration. The whole system is rotten. The system that perpetuates this kind of politics – the trapo and elite politics of the rich and powerful! The system that has ruined this nation for decades and cursed us into bankruptcy.

Hence, we call on all our worker and poor brothers and sisters to go hand in hand with other sectors of our society in stopping this callous act of the GMA administration and finally put a brake on this decaying trapo and elite system.

We call on our brothers and sisters in the Armed Forces of the Philippines to uphold their sworn duty, above all, to protect our country and its people. We call on our beloved soldiers to go hand in hand with the workers and the poor masses in stopping Con Ass and in breaking this rotten system, the same system that has also plagued their ranks.

We have nothing to lose but the shackles that bind us from this rotten system. Batukan ang Con Ass! Lumpagon ang paghari sa mga trapo!

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino Cebu (BMP-Cebu) * Partido Lakas ng Masa Cebu (PLM-Cebu) * Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod-Ce (KPML-Cebu) * Sanlakas Sugbo * Sanlakas Youth.