Ramos accused of 'dismantling' RP democracy

Ramos accused of 'dismantling' RP democracy

MANILA (AFP): Philippine Roman Catholic church leader Cardinal
Jaime Sin has accused President Fidel Ramos and Congress of
conniving to "dismantle" democracy for failing to pass into law
key electoral reforms.

The Manila archbishop, who mobilized civilian "people power"
to support a puny military mutiny that eventually led to the
toppling of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, urged his flock
to prevent the forces of "dictatorship" from returning to power.

"Friends who carefully observe political developments tell me
that ... those who wield political power have gone about
dismantling the gains for democracy and social justice wrought by
the people power revolution of 1986," Sin told an advertising
group here late Thursday.

Ramos, a leader of the 1986 putsch, has denied similar charges
made by the prelate in the past. He has also dismissed
speculation that he would have congress change the constitution
so he could run for re-election in 1998.

"Recent actuations of congress have the effect of steadily
constricting the democratic space won by the citizenry," having
"moved to recover monopoly of access to power by traditional
politicians," Sin added.

He cited the legislature's failure to pass before adjournment
earlier this week a new election code proposed by the official
watchdog Commission on Elections (Comelec) to "reduce the
opportunities for electoral fraud, at which many traditional
politicians are experts."

The new code would have allowed for the election of "women,
youth, farmer, worker or urban poor sectoral representatives to
provincial, city and municipal governments," he added.

Congressional and local government elections are scheduled for
May 8 and the next congress is not scheduled to convene until
late July.

Sin accused Ramos, who has urged congress to pass these
measures, of being "insincere" and of using his pronouncements as
"smokescreens to divert public indignation" towards congress.

Campaign

He called for a public campaign "to rekindle the historical
consciousness" of the electorate "so that the leaders of the
dictatorship that in recent decades sowed ruin and destruction in
the country are not elected to public office."

The influential cardinal, whose battle against the
government's birth control program has been boosted by Pope John
Paul II's pastoral visit here last month, also attacked
government claims of economic recovery on the back of a 5.1
percent gross national product growth last year.

"We are thankful for that growth, but he should not be
euphoric about it. The real weaknesses of the Philippine economy
have not been remedied. Much of the increased aggregate income
for 1994 was not 'quality income', namely that which is
sustainable because it results from increased productive
capacity."