The largest and most militant peasant organization in the Philippines Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) aired its stand on the burning issue of Charter change in a press conference in Quezon City. According to Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the group “Charter change will be extremely detrimental to the welfare of Filipino farmers and we are 100% against it,”

“Also the recent Cha-cha moves of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reeks of political accommodation and payback. The primary ones who will benefit from it are Gloria and Jose de Venecia, by extending their terms and the big foreign trans-national corporations, who will have a field day in buying our lands and enterprises,” added Ramos.

KMP also reiterated that Cha-cha, will serve only to further divide our country. The people does not even want it, their primary concern is to uplift their worsening livelihood, no thanks to the administration’s policy of globalization which caused the increasing prices of water, power, fares, basic necessities and the privatization of social services. This will only worsen if the charter change pushes through.

“The major issue about Cha-cha is not about a change of the form of government, nor the time of when this is to be done, nor what form the change would be? The main issue is cha-cha would not benefit the majority of our people and would only worsen our lives, for farmers its main effect is the 100% foreign ownership of land,” added Ramos.

“Charter change is not the answer to the worsening state of affairs in our country. It will only serve for GMA to further gain power. For our country to move forward, the government must address the basic problems of the majority of our people, namely peasants and our main problem is landlessness,” concluded Ramos .# # #  
 

KMP - 10 July 2004