A statement by MAKABAYAN
June 4, 2009
WORKERS and PEOPLE UNITE !
VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE CHARTER CHANGE !
With the Congress passage of HB 1109 that seek amendment of the Philippine Constitution by themselves via Constitutional assembly, with a clear motive express by the majority of congressmen which is to provide foreigners the right to exploit Philippine natural resources and privately own land in the Philippines and amass profit out of it. These are restricted under the 1987 Philippine Constitution provision which, because of the particular circumstances under which it was drafted, upheld national patrimony or the Filipino people’s sovereign right to control the nation’s natural resources.
Though the 1987 Constitution is still in place, millions of Filipinos are increasingly losing whatever piece of the Philippines they have been clinging to. Filipino peasants are losing the land they till, as foreigners - American, Japanese, Chinese and Malaysians among others - take renewed interest in utilizing our land for their jatropha, sugarcane, coconut production for biofuels and other industrial uses; for expanded banana, pineapple and other fruit production for their canneries and markets. Communities are being demolished to give way to five-star hotels, luxurious condominiums and subdivisions, golf courses, and other resorts – haven and playground for the rich and powerful. Others are being relocated as they become endangered by operation of foreign mining corporations. All these at the instance of the government, in its collusion with foreign interests in circumventing the Constitution, in utter disregard for the people’s well-being.
Even the increasingly devastating impact of the current global economic crisis on the rural and urban poor cannot move this government and the Congress to take note of the people’s plight and take heed of the people’s cry.
Unconcealed efforts of different branches of government favored capitalists in institutionalizing flexible labor via contractualization and rights suppression. Executive and department orders, judicial legislation and the continued inaction of both the congress and the senate to legislate specific laws to implement the social justice provision of the constitution negate and erode the workers hard earned won rights and protection.
The House of Representatives adamantly refuses to legislate a thorough and genuine agrarian reform program. Reforms under the flawed CARP are being withdrawn with the unceremonious termination of the largely unimplemented program Peasants have been marching for a year now demanding that agrarian reform be thoroughly pursued to correct the social injustice of land monopoly established by Spanish and American colonization and being perpetuated under the present system.
Despite a succession of landslides and mudslides triggered by environmental destruction wrought by previous foreign mining and logging operations – calamities that buried whole communities and forced the evacuation of thousands of survivors to uncertain, temporary centers - the government continues to insist on and promote foreign mining operations and allow export-oriented logging operations in the country against the expressed wishes of endangered communities.
The urban Poor’s pleas against demolition of their homes in the absence of provisions for humane relocation fall on deaf ears and their resistance is met with the most savage of attacks.
GMA-led government is in its final drive to nail the coffin of our national patrimony. They want multinationals and rich foreigners to have open access to, and control and ownership over our natural resources – forest, minerals, land and waters. They want to remove whatever formal recognition there is in the Philippine Constitution of the Filipino’s inalienable right to his homeland.
As the House of Representatives ready to convene as Constituent assembly to change the constitution, millions of landless and homeless Filipinos can only ask: WHO DO THESE REPRESENTATIVES REALLY REPRESENT? Why are they so eager to sell out our patrimony? Clearly, GMA and her allies in the congress knows that they have already lost support from the Filipino people that’s why they are hell bent to get support of the global monopoly capital that in return will support the regime to stay in power forever.
With such betrayal, we, the mass of Filipinos, have only ourselves to rely on to protect our own claim to these “. . . ang aking lupang sinilangan; . . . ang tahanan ng aking lahi . . .” Only by defending our national patrimony can we recite in full solemnity our Panatang Makabayan. Only then can we take pride in being one people with our own homeland. Only through struggle can we frustrate the renewed colonization, albeit in new form, of our country. Let us unite up to our last breath “ Ang mamatay ng dahil sa yo”.
Our Homeland is for Filipinos, Not for Foreigners!
June 4, 2009
WORKERS and PEOPLE UNITE !
VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE CHARTER CHANGE !
With the Congress passage of HB 1109 that seek amendment of the Philippine Constitution by themselves via Constitutional assembly, with a clear motive express by the majority of congressmen which is to provide foreigners the right to exploit Philippine natural resources and privately own land in the Philippines and amass profit out of it. These are restricted under the 1987 Philippine Constitution provision which, because of the particular circumstances under which it was drafted, upheld national patrimony or the Filipino people’s sovereign right to control the nation’s natural resources.
Though the 1987 Constitution is still in place, millions of Filipinos are increasingly losing whatever piece of the Philippines they have been clinging to. Filipino peasants are losing the land they till, as foreigners - American, Japanese, Chinese and Malaysians among others - take renewed interest in utilizing our land for their jatropha, sugarcane, coconut production for biofuels and other industrial uses; for expanded banana, pineapple and other fruit production for their canneries and markets. Communities are being demolished to give way to five-star hotels, luxurious condominiums and subdivisions, golf courses, and other resorts – haven and playground for the rich and powerful. Others are being relocated as they become endangered by operation of foreign mining corporations. All these at the instance of the government, in its collusion with foreign interests in circumventing the Constitution, in utter disregard for the people’s well-being.
Even the increasingly devastating impact of the current global economic crisis on the rural and urban poor cannot move this government and the Congress to take note of the people’s plight and take heed of the people’s cry.
Unconcealed efforts of different branches of government favored capitalists in institutionalizing flexible labor via contractualization and rights suppression. Executive and department orders, judicial legislation and the continued inaction of both the congress and the senate to legislate specific laws to implement the social justice provision of the constitution negate and erode the workers hard earned won rights and protection.
The House of Representatives adamantly refuses to legislate a thorough and genuine agrarian reform program. Reforms under the flawed CARP are being withdrawn with the unceremonious termination of the largely unimplemented program Peasants have been marching for a year now demanding that agrarian reform be thoroughly pursued to correct the social injustice of land monopoly established by Spanish and American colonization and being perpetuated under the present system.
Despite a succession of landslides and mudslides triggered by environmental destruction wrought by previous foreign mining and logging operations – calamities that buried whole communities and forced the evacuation of thousands of survivors to uncertain, temporary centers - the government continues to insist on and promote foreign mining operations and allow export-oriented logging operations in the country against the expressed wishes of endangered communities.
The urban Poor’s pleas against demolition of their homes in the absence of provisions for humane relocation fall on deaf ears and their resistance is met with the most savage of attacks.
GMA-led government is in its final drive to nail the coffin of our national patrimony. They want multinationals and rich foreigners to have open access to, and control and ownership over our natural resources – forest, minerals, land and waters. They want to remove whatever formal recognition there is in the Philippine Constitution of the Filipino’s inalienable right to his homeland.
As the House of Representatives ready to convene as Constituent assembly to change the constitution, millions of landless and homeless Filipinos can only ask: WHO DO THESE REPRESENTATIVES REALLY REPRESENT? Why are they so eager to sell out our patrimony? Clearly, GMA and her allies in the congress knows that they have already lost support from the Filipino people that’s why they are hell bent to get support of the global monopoly capital that in return will support the regime to stay in power forever.
With such betrayal, we, the mass of Filipinos, have only ourselves to rely on to protect our own claim to these “. . . ang aking lupang sinilangan; . . . ang tahanan ng aking lahi . . .” Only by defending our national patrimony can we recite in full solemnity our Panatang Makabayan. Only then can we take pride in being one people with our own homeland. Only through struggle can we frustrate the renewed colonization, albeit in new form, of our country. Let us unite up to our last breath “ Ang mamatay ng dahil sa yo”.
Our Homeland is for Filipinos, Not for Foreigners!