The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) organized a
forum last March 26, 2024 about the Charter Change under Marcos administration.
It was attended by representatives of various labor organizations and youth sector.
CTUHR is a partner-network organization of YCW especially on the issues related
to work, human rights, women rights and environment.
The proposed Charter Change (ChaCha) is one of the burning and
controversial issues in the Philippines today. The proposed amendment to the
1987 Philippine Constitution has been passed by Congress with a 288 vote in
favor and 8 who stood against and 2 abstentions. Just recently, the House of
Representatives approved on its third and final reading the proposed amendments
on the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution. It can be noted
that this is the farthest attempt to amend the Constitution comparing to
previous administrations.
It can be remembered that the launching of Peoples Initiative (PI) by
gathering registered voters in different parts of the country has been
questioned by the general public, some bishops of the Catholic Church and a
number of Legislators due to unreasonable collection of signatures.
For the YCW, the attempt to change the constitution will only cause complications in the livelihood of the people, in the national security and the rights of the Filipino people will be put in jeopardy. This will open for more liberal imports and the Philippines will become more and more dependent on imports. For example, those in the agricultural sector, will have more difficulty developing their own agricultural products especially when they are being monopolized by giant corporations. This will cause more severe losses and hardships to the Filipino farmers. In the proposed economic amendments, foreign investors are given the right to fully owned (100%) of the land and the resources in the Philippines.
It is crystal clear that the proposed Charter Change is not for the
benefit of the Filipino people but rather of the political interest of those in
government power with the conspiracy of the capitalists. In other words, the real meaning of the
Charter Change is an extensive privatization of essential public services like
food, electricity, water and of natural resources that in a long run will result
to job scarcity, dispersion of indigenous people from their community, lack of
job security, low wages, suppression of workers and human rights and
environmental degradation.
Therefore, the workers and the youth, together
with other sectors must stand up and fight the fraudulent Charter Change of the
Marcos administration.
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