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."