“Its all systems go for the Anti-Cha-cha movement. Charter change has consistently been rejected and it will be rejected once more.” Thus said Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza as Malacanang announced that it’s now “all systems go” for Charter Change.

“We have no doubts that the people’s movement will once more thwart this devious plot. President Arroyo cannot hide behind the cloak of pushing for a federal-parliamentary form of government via Charter Change. Her intention of overstaying further in Malacanang is crystal clear,” said Maza.

The lawmaker also said that not only has the people’s rejection of Charter Change under President Arroyo been consistent, it has also been consistently on the rise. Maza recalls that during the height of the Sigaw ng Bayan people’s initiative and President Arroyo’s pro-charter change rallies survey results showed that even the minority who were satisfied with the government’s performance were not in favor of Charter Change:

> In the first quarter of 2006, 48% of respondents were against Charter Change while 43% were in favor. However, 52% of those who favored Charter Change would not want to have it under President Arroyo.

> In the SWS survey released in the fourth quarter of 2006, 2 out of the 3 or 67% would vote “No” if a plebiscite to approve a proposed new Constitution were held. The survey which had 1,200 respondents, was conducted from September 24 to October 2

> A November 24-29 2006 survey conducted by the SWS showed that the “No” vote on Cha-Cha is 79 percent among those “dissatisfied with the President,” 57 percent among those “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied,” and 54 percent among those satisfied with her performance.

The Gabriela solon further warned, “The unpopular Charter Change under an unpopular President whose popularity rating has plunged to an all time low of negative 38, would be suicide.” #

“Putting on the line the slaughter of communities, deviously invoking the Bangsamoro’s rightful claim to their homeland and the peace process in laying the carefully calculated plan for Charter Change cannot be anything but mass murder and outright treachery.”

Thus said Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza in a press conference denouncing President Arroyo’s renewed bid for Charter Change via federalism.

“The problems in Mindanao are deeply rooted and federalism, especially when it is raised with sinister intentions to entrench oneself further into power, cannot resolve this. It cannot even be seen as a step towards the resolution of conflict. Clearly, the call for federalism is meant only to give President Arroyo the much needed opportunity to mess with the Constitution, and assure the extension of her term,” said Maza.

The Gabriela solon explained that President Arroyo’s term extension can be facilitated through the institution of a federal cum parliamentary form of government that could at the same time superficially recognize the creation of a Bangsamoro state, as stipulated in the controversial Memorandum of Agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“The Arroyo government is the last entity in the universe that we can trust with amending the Constitution whether surgical or extensive. We will exert all efforts to stop any maneuver towards Charter Change in Congress,” vowed Maza.#

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza today joined calls for the immediate resignation of Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon.

“He is not worthy of his position. The Memorandum of Agreement that supposedly marked a breakthrough in the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has failed to undergo a thorough and sincere process of consultation among stakeholders. Somebody has to take responsibility and heads should roll,” said Rep. Maza

“Esperon, who has always been President Arroyo’s go-to guy in corrupt and baleful operations from the Garci scandal to the human rights violations of the Armed Forces under his term, should go.”

The Gabriela solon further said that Esperon’s involvement in the peace process raises several questions “What could they be up to this time? May niluluto nanaman ba sila?” According to Maza, it was a demonstration of the Arroyo government’s vicious peace policy.

Maza also said that the secrecy with which the MoA was crafted brings about doubts of underlying intentions such as Charter Change to pave the way for President Arroyo’s term extension or to further US military presence, military presence and intervention. “Bringing about genuine peace and upholding people’s rights and interests could very well be the least of the government’s intentions in its negotiations with the MILF.”

“The Arroyo government’s track record in peace negotiations is filled with backstabbing and treachery, talking peace on one hand while pursuing an all out war on the other. For several years the Arroyo regime has purposely refused to acknowledge and address extrajudicial killings, disappearances and human rights violations committed against peace advocates and human rights defenders. This is definitely not the way to talk peace.”

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza toady called for immediate price intervention from the Arroyo government with runaway inflation, now at 12.2%, hitting the poor hardest.

“The rising inflation rate brought about by an unending increase in food prices betrays the failure of the so-called “Katas ng VAT” poverty alleviation measures that the Arroyo has pompously flaunted in the SONA. This calls for drastic reforms in policy and governance that will bring food prices to levels that our people can afford. We believe the immediate removal of the 12% VAT is in order,” said Maza.

The Gabriela solon noted that the lowest income families, who spend most of their meager income for food, suffer most from the government’s economic mismanagement. “President Arroyo boasts of having women and children line up for hour for the cheap rice she provides, subsidies and dole-outs but the grim reality is: Wala nang pagkain sa mga hapag kainan!”

Government statistics in fact note that inflation was highest in rice at 50.0 percent in July from 43.0 percent in June; corn, 40.6 percent from 34.3 percent; fruits and vegetables, 13.8 percent from 12.5 percent. “All in all, food inflation was at 18.6 in July from 17.4% in June,” said Maza.

“A slowdown in the increase in the prices of consumer products would be possible should the government immediately suspend if not repeal the VAT outright,” said the lawmaker as she called on colleagues in Congress to immediately act on HB 3458 removing the 12% VAT on oil products and HB 3433 to repeal the RVAT, both filed by Gabriela Women’s Party. Reps. Maza and Luz Ilagan have likewise co-authored HB 1724 to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law.#

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza expressed today her support for the workers of Bleustar Manufacturing Incorporated as she filed House Resolution 707 seeking to look into the implementation of the Anti-Sexual Harassment law of 1995.

“The experience of women workers in Bleustar Manufacturing Incorporated shows us the increasing vulnerability of women workers to gender violence and sexual harassment in the workplace as well as the toothlessness of existing sexual harassment laws,” said Maza.

Women workers of Bleustar Manufacturing Incorporated claimed that for almost every single day in the past 10 years, an extremely drunk factory owner, Mr. Jimmy Ong would make them fall in line at the gate, ask each of them to kiss him before they report for their posts at the sewing department. “It was disgusting but we had no choice. We risk losing our jobs,” said Gloria Bongon, vice chairperson of the Bleustar Workers Labor Union.

Bongon also recalled that Ong in 2006, called her over and asked her to touch his private parts. She pulled back and ran. “Most women workers would run to the comfort rooms or hide under the tables when Mr. Ong would arrive. We repeatedly complained about this but the management would tell us to just wash it off. Ipaligo nalang daw namin.”

Bleustar Manufacturing Incorporated is the maker of Advan rainboots and shoes and has 205 rank and file workers in its employ. 85% of workers in the 18 year old factory are women. “95% kung hindi man 100% ng mga kababaihan dito ay na-harass na ni Mr. Ong,” said Bongon.

“Their stories of horror should be enough to prod Congress to immediately act on laws for women workers’ protection, including House Bill 3704 or the Amendments to the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act,” said Maza

HB 3704 compels employers to adopt a comprehensive, detailed, written policy on sexual harassment and mandates a 48-hour deadline for the management to act on complaints against sexual harassment. It also seeks to expand the definition of sexual harassment to include those committed outside the workplace. #

Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza today urged the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs to waive former UN envoy Lauro Baja’s diplomatic immunity to give due course to the trafficking, forced labor and slavery cases filed by domestic worker Marichu Baoanan in the US courts.

Baja, with his wife Norma and daughter Maria Elizabeth, filed a motion in the Southern District Court of New York to dismiss Baoanan’s complaint, invoking diplomatic immunity against criminal, civil and administrative cases under the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the treaties under the United Nations Charter.

“In the interest of truth and out of delicadeza, the DFA should waive the Bajas’ immunities to  ferret out the facts and arguments on the case. Ambassadors and foreign service officers accused or charged of trafficking and enslaving Filipina domestic workers should not hide behind the cloak of blanket and indiscriminate immunity,” said Maza.

Maza cited Article 31 of the Vienna Convention, which provides immunity for diplomatic agents from the receiving State’s criminal jurisdiction except in cases related to actions regarding any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent outside his official functions, among the three provisions on exemptions.

“Even under the international treaty, Baoanan’s allegations of trafficking and slavery against the Bajas fall under a commercial activity that exploits the poor and vulnerable for personal profit or gain,” Maza said.

The Gabriela solon also noted  a Philippine Supreme Court decision in 2000 which cautioned and ruled against the DFA when it granted full diplomatic immunity to an employee of the Asian Development Bank, an act which the Court said was a violation of the rights to due process both of the accused and the prosecution.#

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza today criticized President Arroyo’s SONA double talk on the government’s population policy as one driven by her administration’s need for survival. “Nakakadismaya na maging sa usapin ng panganganak at matris ng kababaihan ay nagsisinungaling pa rin si Presdiente Arroyo.”

“At her SONA, President Arroyo claimed to have successfully reduced the country’s population growth rate through natural family planning and glossed over the fact that the government has also been implementing artificial family planning methods. P180M have been allocated in the 2007 General Appropriations Act for Family Planning and Reproductive Health, including P150M for the distribution of artificial family planning commodities and education. Moreover, the Arroyo government has been receiving USAID grants for artificial family planning,” said Maza.

“Moreover, hard data do not support the President’s claim. The UP Population Institute reveal that only 15.1% of married women aged 15-49 are using natural and traditional family planning methods while 35.6% are using artificial contraception.”

“President Arroyo lied. But by towing the line of influential Catholic groups for natural family planning methods in her SONA, President Arroyo is impeding the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill pending in Congress.”

According to Maza, “Promoting natural family planning as a national policy would automatically limit women and couples’ choices, by making alternative family planning methods unavailable; it is tantamount to denying their basic right to women’s healthcare and to choose.”

“We are a country where about 10 to 12 women die every day due to pregnancy-related causes. Maternal mortality rate is at 162, still a far cry from the Millennium Development Goal target of 52. UNESCO statistics puts us at #49 among countries with high maternal mortality rates. Education and reproductive healthcare alternatives must be made available to women if we are to address maternal mortality and women’s reproductive healthcare in our country.”

The Gabriela solon called for the immediate passage of the Reproductive Health Bill pending in Congress. “A pro-women, pro-poor healthcare policy inevitably includes the provision of reproductive healthcare services, facilities and alternatives.” #

Visit Gabriela Women’s Party’s official website. Access the latest press releases, copies of bills and resolutions filed and privilege speeches. Get updated on campaign issues and whats going on in Gabriela Women’s Party’s regional chapters.

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“Terrorism in Mindanao is State-initiated, therefore, it follows that poverty in Mindanao is also caused by the Arroyo government.”

This was the statement of Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Luzviminda Ilagan, following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s claim during the State of the Nation Address that her administration’s failure to alleviate poverty in Mindanao, is due to the endless conflict in the Philippines’ second largest island.

“The State-declared ‘war on terror’ supposedly aimed to maintain peace in Mindanao turned out to be a ‘war of terror’ intended to protect the US and Arroyo’s financial and political interests. She deployed members of the military even in conflict-free areas to silence the people who oppose her so-called development projects,” the solon from Davao said.

The massive military operations in the southern part of the Philippines effectively displaced thousands of families, who, for fear for their lives chose to leave their homes and their sources of livelihood behind. Small farmers have complained that in eking a living, they are constantly starting all over again.

Mindanao, the food basket of the Philippines, was reported to have six out of the ten poorest provinces in the country and has the highest incidence of hunger in the nation. The food crisis, which pegged the price of rice at an all-time high of P50 per kilo, increased the number of people who can not meet their daily food needs to 64% this year from 62% in 2007. The rate of malnutrition among children also rose, especially in ARMM were it reached 35% from 31% in 1995, as children were forced to skip meals.

Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Largoza Maza today said President Arroyo’s defense of the Value Added Tax at the State of the Nation Address is the biggest of all lies at yesterday’s 57-minute, tall-tale marathon.

“It is not true that 90% of the country’s VAT on power collection is being paid for by the rich and well to do,” said Maza, citing research conducted by the consumer group, POWER and statistics from the Department of Energy which reveals that:

While 62.4% of energy consumption may be consumed by the industrial and commercial sectors, the VAT collected from these is immediately passed on to customers and end-consumers. An estimated 90% of the 34% energy consumed by residential customers go to lifeline consumers or those who consume less than 500 kwh.

Maza further said, “It is also not true that the 12% VAT on oil impacts greatly only on the rich who supposedly consume 84% of the nation’s oil. The president deliberately ignored the impact of high oil prices on the transportation and other costs that contribute to the high prices of food and basic commodities that poor Filipinos consume. Inflation of food prices is currently at 17%.”

According to the Gabriela solon, “The VAT’s retention will be politically costly for President Arroyo. People are not buying Mrs. Arroyo’s Katas ng VAT propaganda. The subsidies are not enough. These are dole-outs that do not spell long-term economic growth for the majority of the people.” #