Filipino Activists protest Charter change, killings in Mendiola

Manila-- Thousands of FIlipino protesters led by the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP-The Philippine Peasant Movement) marched Friday to denounce President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's campaign to amend the constitution and what they said was a spate of political killings in the Philippines.

The Philippine Peasant Support Network(Pesante-USA) expressed solidarity with this nationawide mass action in the Philippines. As a Filipino peasant advocacy group, Pesante was formed in the U.S in 1991 and is a member of the Aliiance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP).

Accordsing to news reports from Manila, the KMP and other militant activists tried but failed to reach historic Mendiola (now Don Chino Roces) Bridge in Manila to protest government efforts to amend the Constitution, condemn the spate of political killings, and press for land reform.

Chanting "Oust Gloria," they jammed traffic leading to Malacañang, passing through back streets to elude anti-riot police who blocked their path about a kilometer away.

Hundreds of protesters, joined by former vice president Teofisto Guingona and by Roman Catholic leaders critical of Arroyo, held a similar rally in the Makati financial district.. Ths group celebrated the tactical victory of Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati City against the harassment and persecution by the US-Arroyo regime.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes said the protesters from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines, KMP), the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement), and the Anakpawis party list, marched from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) but were barred as they reached the corner of Recto and Morayta.

Unable to reach the palace, the protesters settled for the busy intersection, where they used spears to hit a giant effigy of a rat with Arroyo's caricature before burning it. Streamers read "Stop political killings," and "No to Charter Change, Oust Gloria."

"We would also like the Supreme Court to know that they should not be pressured by Malacañang…this is in support of the justices who are anti-(Charter change)," said Reyes.

The protesters urged the Supreme Court to stop Arroyo and her supporters from revising the 19-year-old Constitution to replace the bicameral legislature with a unicameral parliament.

The court is expected to rule later this month on the legality of a "people's initiative" petition with 6.3 million signatures calling for the controversial constitutional change.

Critics allege the changes are being sought to allow Arroyo to prolong her stay in power.

"Mrs. Arroyo is moving heaven and earth to score a giant kill against the sovereign will and common interest of the Filipino people," said Cherry Clemente, an officer of the labor party Anakpawis.

Meanwhile, speaking late Thursday at a gathering of Supreme Court justices and legal luminaries from 33 countries, Arroyo reiterated her call for amendment of the 1987 constitution, saying economic reforms must be accompanied by a change in the political system.

"We seek to amend our constitution so as to modernize it, if we are to build a modern Philippines," she said.



The KMP annual conducts protests on the agrarian reform week that falls on the month of October. in October 1972, the then dictator, Marcos proclaimed the failed agrarian reform law that declared the Philippines as a land reform area and "land reform as the corner stone of the new society."

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