DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Anakpawis party-list Representative Ariel Casilao urged the people to oppose the proposal of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to move the 2019 elections to 2022 to give way to the on-going charter change for a federal government.
Casilao, on Friday, disagreed with Alvarez’s claim that the postponement of the mid-year election next year was ”the most practical thing to do” in the middle of move to shift to federalism.
Alvarez proposed the postponement of the 2019 elections for Senators, House Representatives, and local chief executives last week as he suggested for the house to concentrate on the constitutional revisions.
This move, according to Casilao reveals the self-serving intentions of Duterte’s allies to stay in power by overruling the people’s democratic right.
“The people should reject such move. It is undemocratic. It smacks of the cook who wants to be at the center of the feast.” Casilao added.
Casilao warned that the postponement of the election came at a time of the changing of the Constitution and the recent eviction of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno from the Supreme Court, and described them as tailoring to the design “of the Duterte dictatorship”.
”We should unite and support initiatives against Duterte and his allies to change the constitution for self-serving purpose”, Casilao said.
He warned that a shift ot the federal system would have the working class suffer the most as he noted that the alteration of the present 1987 Constitutions has resulted to the removal of provisions on the rights of workers to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, participatory decision-making, and collective bargaining and to strike in accordance with law.(davaotoday.com)
