Results of Pulse Asia’s December 2023 survey on Filipinos’ most urgent national concerns belie what proponents of the people’s initiative would claim as a groundswell of grassroot support for charter change. In Lapu-Lapu City, petition forms are being circulated that call for a constitutional amendment that will allow further amendments to be done through joint voting by the House and Senate.
Published on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, survey results showed the majority of Filipinos were unhappy with the way the Marcos government is addressing the problems of inflation, and nothing indicates charter change to be one of their most urgent national concerns.
At the top of Filipinos’ most urgent concerns is controlling inflation (72 percent), increasing the pay of workers (40 percent), creating more jobs (28 percent), reducing the poverty of many Filipinos (25 percent), and fighting graft and corruption (19 percent).
Hindi P100 kada pirma kundi mahigit P100 na wage increase at trabaho ang nais ng mga Pilipino.
(Filipinos don’t want P100 for their signature but a P100 wage increase and gainful employment.)
We have recently monitored the organized paid signature drive for chacha in many areas around the country.
Filipinos bid farewell to 2023 hopeful that things would get better by 2024 and beyond.
They were hopeful for positive changes in 2024 and beyond. Nowhere did we hear a clamor for charter change from the grassroots to address the issues highlighted in the survey. What we are certain about is that the initiative is an organized campaign orchestrated from the higher echelons of power.
We insist that sorely lacking are effective government initiatives to combat inflation, provide substantial wage increases for workers, and address chronic unemployment problems