The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) thumbed down the proposal of businessman Raul Concepcion to give Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo special powers to solve the oil and the so-called impending power crisis of the country. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group “special powers like the one proposed is always a strong magnet for abuse and it cannot be restrained once given to the president, an example of which was the special powers given to former president Fidel V. Ramos which caused the unchecked proliferation of onerous and anomalous power contracts,”

“The saying absolute power corrupts absolutely best describes the scenario if the proposal is realized and knowing Gloria’s lust for power she maximize it for her advantage,” warned the peasant leader.

The group also bared the fact that this type of move would only concentrate undue power to a power hungry president and its limits are dictated upon by her whim.

“Why can’t the government or the business sector get the point?  The only solution to the crises that we now face in oil, power, water or fiscal collection is the nationalization of our industries coupled with genuine land reform? It is only through this that we will have effective control of our economy and not rely on the whim of the so-called market or businessmen,” said Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP.

“The reacquisition of Petron as well as the repeal of the oil deregulation law are examples of this patriotic move. Another is the non-payment of the debt incurred by the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Helping our scientists to develop alternatives to oil is another. It is a crime that the government do not recognize and even embarrass our brilliant scientists who have already developed alternatives to oil Like Prof. Dingle, just to protect the interest of Shell, Caltex and Petron,” Ala ended. # # #
 

KMP - 10 August 2004