Top 10 Reasons Filipinos in the US Should Say No to Arroyo’s Cha-Cha!

Top 10 Reasons Filipinos in the US Should Say No to Arroyo’s Cha-Cha!
By BAYAN USA

10.  It would allow foreign entities, including multi-national corporations, to own residential, commercial, and industrial lands without any restrictions.

 9. It would allow foreign entities, including multi-national corporations, to exploit and plunder the Philippines rich natural resources, including gold, oil, nickel, and copper.

 8. It would allow foreign entities, including multi-national corporations, to control and/or operate all public utilities, such as water, electricity, and communications.

 7. All profits from these foreign entities will not go back to the Filipino people for development, but instead towards debt payments that ensure the Philippine government can borrow more international loans and create more debt.

 6. After leading a major corruption rampage in the past 3 years, including $329 million in the ZTE-National Broadband Network deal, $503 million for the Northrail Project and P728 million in the Fertilizer Fund scam, the Arroyo administration will lead the Philippine economy further down and will increase poverty.

 5. After almost 1000 extra-judicial killings and 300 enforced disappearances of Filipino civilians since 2001, Cha-cha will worsen the human rights situation in the Philippines and Arroyo’s crimes will be left unpunished and there will be no justice to the victims and their families.

 4. As poverty deepens in the Philippines, lack of jobs will force more Filipinos to leave the country as a means to survive. At present, a minimum of 3000 Filipinos leave the Philippines for this reason every day.

 3. It will lift critical and hard-won provisions in the 1987 Philippine Constitution that currently prohibits foreign troops, such as the US military, to set up permanent military bases and engage in direct combat on Philippine soil.

 2. It will lift critical and hard-won provisions in the 1987 Philippine Constitution that currently prohibits the declaration of martial rule such as the one imposed by the Marcos dictatorship for more than a decade.

 1. It will scrap the democratic practice of elections and extend the Arroyo administration’s term indefinitely past 2010.

* Cha-Cha is short for Charter Change, proposed amendments to the standing Main Charter of the Philippine nation– the 1987 Constitution, authored by the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

BAYAN-USA is an alliance of progressive Filipino groups in the U.S. representing organizations of students, scholars, women, workers, and youth. As the one of the international chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Philippines), BAYAN-USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement of the Philippines and as a campaign center for anti-imperialist Filipinos in the U.S. Contact: info@bayanusa.org Website: http://www.bayanusa.org.

Tags: BAYAN, BAYAN USA, CHA CHA, CON-ASS, Dictatorship, Enforced Disappearances, Extrajudicial Killings, GMA, Human Rights Violations, Imperialism, Martial Law, Torture, VFA, Visiting Forces Agreement