Going for broke is my column for today. I think the game plan is clear, and it’s achievable for the President:
1. Announce they have 4-5 million signatures by this or next weekend.
2. An obliging Comelec will say it will validate those signatures.
3. An obliging Supreme Court with either reverse its previous ruling or delay ruling on cases until the referendum is won.
4. A referendum on converting the presidential to parliamentary system will be held and won by the Palace.
5. The New interim parliament will convene before the end of this year, possibly as early as July or August.
6. Once in office, it will postpone election on the pretext that it has to convene as a Constituent Assembly for further amendments to the Constitution.
7. Instead of elections next year, there will be another plebiscite on many more Constitutional amendments.
Baycas dug this up this pdi article on the proposed CHA CHA timeline of lakas:
FOLLOWING is the proposed timeline of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats party for the shift to a parliamentary system:
March 22, 2006: Approval of seven constitutional amendments by constituent assembly or people's initiative.
April 3: Start of information campaign on constitutional amendments.
June 2: Plebiscite on two questions, to be answered by "Yes" or "No": (1) Do you approve of the amendments? (2) Do you want elections for all elective officials under the parliamentary system in May 2007 (or May 2010)?
June 30: Transformation to interim parliamentary government.
June 2007 or June 2010, depending on final submission and result of plebiscite): Incumbent President winds up functions as head of state and head of the government.
Sabi ni Arbet Bernardo:
Most analysts and bloggers now think that the current issues on people’s initiative and Charter change are just diversions. To divert what?
To divert the people and anti-GMA group's attention away from Arroyo's illegitimacy and corruption issues and make them use up their energy to thwart her attempts to change the constitution more to her liking and stack the rules in her favor via the phony signature campaign by initiated by the Government.
btw, why is COMELEC taking this signature campaign seriously? since:
a) it's clearly a gov't initiated effort.
b) people got bribed using gov't money for their signatures.
So shouldn't the whole "People's initiative" thing be nullified by the COMELEC since halatang ginastusan ng Gobierno ang "initiative" na ito para mabili ang signatures ng mga mamamayan?
If the COMELEC validates this bogus "people's initiative", this should put any doubts to rest na hawak sila ng malacanang.
UPDATE: is vote buying and signature buying legal? i don't mind if a candidate uses his/her own money to buy people's support. pero kapag ginamit mo ang pera ng bayan para sa ganitong effort, hindi ba illegal yan?
UPDATE: More from Malaya:
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said: "This government has near-perfected the art of deceiving the people."
He said reports from the field showed government men were orchestrating the barangay assemblies.
"Talagang gumagastos sila ng pera sa pagpipirma na ginagawa nila. Sinasamantala nila ang kumakalam na sikmura ng kababayan natin para maisakatuparan ang kanilang hangarin na mag-shift tayo sa parliamentary system through people’s initiative. Alam nilang malaki ang problema sa Mataas na Kapulungan ng Kongreso," Lacson said.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said P20 million was initially released for the signature campaign.
He said municipal development officers of the Department of Interior and Local Government organized and coordinated the barangay assemblies.
"In that meeting, the local government officials were told about the funds for the holding of the barangay assembly and the money had been released," Pimentel said...
Pimentel said he was not surprised anymore when barangay officials and workers, as well as residents, openly admitted that bribe money was being offered to those who would sign the petition calling for amendments to the Constitution.
More here.
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