Thursday, December 14, 2006 Editorials: Back to the streets
THE rally scheduled at the Luneta this Sunday against the attempt of the House of Representatives to railroad Charter change (Cha-cha) will be a big one considering the nod given by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to the activity.
But while the protest action was sparked by the move of majority congressmen to convene the House into a constituent assembly (Con-Ass) without the participation of the Senate, there are efforts by some sectors to transform it into an anti-Arroyo undertaking.
Had the Con-Ass been the only target, the announcement of the House leadership to shelve the move would have prompted the organizers of the protest action to cancel the activity or at the very least transform it into a victory rally.
Instead, there are indications the rally will be used to reinvigorate the anti-Arroyo protests that weakened months before after rallies could no longer bring in the crowd.
Merger of forces
This is in fact the first time in a long while that religious groups, including the crowd-drawing El Shaddai and Jesus Is Lord Movement, will merge with the forces of the political opposition and militants for a major gathering.
Political strategists will surely not overlook the potentials of such a merger.
Malacañang, though, has nobody to blame but itself for the brazenness with which it has pushed the Cha-cha train, thereby alienating itself from a spectrum broader than the one that earlier worked for the impeachment of President Arroyo.
The President’s attempt to distance herself from the House’s Con-Ass move and Speaker Jose de Venecia’s announcement of a shift to a constitutional convention mode is an attempt by the administration to mend fences with the “friendly” forces it alienated.
Political storm
It remains to be seen whether Malacañang will succeed in weaning such groups as the CBCP and El Shaddai away from the political opposition and the militants or whether the political opposition and militants will manage to strengthen the merger.
What is apparent for now is that after a long respite, the country seems to be heading back to the kind of political situation that unfurled when the Garci controversy erupted.
