Militants step up anti-Chacha campaign

A MILITANT group has urged various sectors to oppose the passage of a resolution of both Houses on Charter change on the economic provisions of the Constitution as it would trigger legislation of “anti-Filipino policies and favorable to foreigners.”

About 300 members belonging to Anakpawis Party-list chapters in Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon set up camp outside Congress since to stand guard against Charter change.

“All of the Filipino people would be affected by Chacha and the only beneficiaries would be the foreigners and their cronies,” said Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap said during a protest at the south gate of Congress.

Anakpawis said RBH 1 has inserted “unless otherwise provided by law,” on the constitutional provisions banning 100 percent foreign ownership of corporations, as well as the ban for private corporations to own lands.

Hicap said these proposals would hit hard on the Filipino peasants, workers and other marginalized sectors.

Small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) are also vulnerable to big foreign corporations who are obviously at an advantage in terms of capital and technology, the group said.

“When foreigners control most of the lands in the country, there would be more people with no livelihood, more urban poor, unemployed and capitalists would be empowered to lower wages of workers,” Hicap said.

Anakpawis said that when people have no income, sales generated by SMEs would eventually decline leading them to bankruptcy.

Hicap also lambasted the Aquino administration’s “subservience to neo-liberal policies, such as dependence on foreign investment.” He said this actually put the national economy to a much weaker state.

“Aquino treats foreign investment as god, hence, on his many junket, he boasts with GDP growth and others indicators, this is a large-scale deception as foreigners would only invest in the country on the pretext that they would profit,” Hicap said