MANILA, Philippines— Gabriela Women’s Partylist called on the administration to stop Charter Change 0r Cha-cha as the group commemorated and celebrated International Working Women’s Day on Wednesday.
Gabriela marched with activist groups and women and amplified the call to junk anti-poor and anti-people policies including Charter Change through Constitutional Convention, it said in a statement.
“Imbis na magpasa ng mga batas hinggil sa pagtataas ng sahod at pagpapababa ng presyo ng bilihin, pilit na niraratsada ng gobyerno ang pagpapasa ng Charter Change na mas magpapatindi pa ng korapsyon sa gobyerno at kahirapan sa bansa,” Gabriela Women’s Party Secretary General KJ Catequista said.
(Instead of passing bills that help ease rising prices of goods and commodities, the government chose to prioritize Charter Change which will increase corruption in government and poverty.)
The House of Representatives approved the second reading of the Resolution of Both Houses No. 1, paving the way for the creation of a Constitutional Convention.
As one of the six representatives who voted against the resolution, Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas voiced her frustration, pointing out that the government is willing to provide funding for the Constitutional Convention.
“The government is willing to provide a whopping P10 billion funding for the Constitutional Convention, including P10,000 per day per diem per delegate while it only offered a meager P500 per month for two months for 9.3 million families. Binabarat ni Marcos Jr. ang mahihirap habang binubusog ang mga alipores nito,” she said.
(Marcos Jr. is stingy to the poor while filling the stomachs of his henchmen.)
According to the statement, Brosas believed that charter change is not the solution to the public’s clamor. She insisted that the administration heed the call for workers’ wage hike, job security, and right to freely organize, the women’s rights representative said.
Gabriela Women’s Partylist vowed to champion working women’s rights on the commemorative International Working Women’s Day.
—MJ Soriano, INQUIRER.net trainee
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