STATEMENT
On Changing the Constitution
Government has run amuck in its desire to change the Constitution. Recent events clearly demonstrate that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her allies in Congress will employ any means, mostly foul, to achieve their objective. They must be stopped, and stopped now, or they will destroy the law itself and tear our country apart.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s announcement yesterday shelving the constituent assembly does not mean she has abandoned her plans of changing the Constitution. Words are easy and cheap. Until the mechanisms for charter change have actually been dismantled—such as House Resolution No. 197—moves to change the Constitution by constituent assembly can be pursued at any time.
The FREE LEGAL ASSISTANCE GROUP (FLAG) calls upon the Filipino people to unite in forceful opposition against charter change, and demand that all current mechanisms put in place for changing the Constitution be immediately dismantled.
Quezon City, Philippines, 10 December 2006.
JOSE MANUEL I. DIOKNO
Chair
