We in Akbayan oppose in the strongest possible terms the Estrada administration's plan to change the 1987 constitution. The national patrimony provisions of the constitution that President Estrada wants to remove are among the few remaining defenses of our economy against unruly globalization. Even worse, the administration would limit the constitutional reform process to the members of Congress through a constituent assembly.
We support the August 20 mobilization and its call for defense of press freedom, against creeping cronyism and the authoritarian tendencies of the Estrada administration. We share the fears of those groups and individuals who believe that the only way to stop the administration's charter change plans is to oppose constitutional amendments altogether. We will unite with thme to stop President Estrada's cha cha.
At the same time, we believe that if constitutional reform can be re-framed within a participatory and democratic process, if cha cha is undertaken within an elected Constitutional Convention, the challenge of constitutional reform should be confronted now. We must prepare for the struggle on the substantive issues of constitutional reform as soon as possible.
If it is allowed to succeed, the administration plan to remove constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of land and several key industries would come at the worst possible time. The World Trade Organization or WTO Centennial Round negotiations likely to begin soon would remove all remaining restrictions to international trade in a whole range of services and industries. We do not believe that it is possible for the Philippines to opt out of this process altogether. But the WTO Centennial Round and all international trade is a matter of negotiation between nation states. Removing the national patrimony provisions of the constitution would mean we are entering the WTO negotiations by making major concessions even before the negotiations begin.
There are many things about the way the cha cha issue is framed into polarized pro and anti sides that bother us. We do not believe that the charter change issue should be subsumed within a pro and anti-Erap frame. We do not trust those politicians who have flip flopped on this issue as if charter change positioning were simply a matter of who is "in" with the administration and who is "out". If cha cha is going to focus on further economic liberalizationm, we are not sure that those politicians such as former President Fidel Ramos and others to push liberalization during their terms would remain on the side of the people.
Changing the constitution is our right as citizens. But this right has to be exercised through democratic ways and toward democratic ends.
