CHARTER CHANGE IS GLORIA'S LAST GAMBIT TO GET OFF THE HOOK

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo desperately wants to get Charter Change moving as her last card to evade criminal prosecution for the litany of sins against the Filipino she committed while she was in power - from the massive electoral fraud in 2004 to fraudulent business deals.

The minority leader said part of the administration's blueprint to amend the Constitution is to insert a provision that will grant Mrs. Arroyo immunity from suits for official acts she made during her tenure as president.

Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo has deluded herself and her political allies into believing that it is still possible to install a parliamentary system of government where she can run for prime minister despite the lateness of the hour and widespread public condemnation of such illegal and immoral scheme.

"In her obsession to get herself off the hook, Mrs. Arroyo is moving heaven on earth to push for Charter Change, impervious to the fact that the method they have chosen contravenes the Constitution and that it has no chance of succeeding for lack of support from an indignant citizenry," he said.

"It is much ado about nothing, as Shakespeare would say. The majority members of the House knows that they cannot amend the constitution by own lonely selves. They are deluding themselves if they think they can do it. Just in the last few days up to last night the Senate acted on bills from the House changing the name of schools, roads, bridges, and the like. They recognized the need to do so with the concurrence of the Senate. Now they want to change the constitution without senate participation?" Pimentel said.

"They just must be kidding not only themselves but the people as well. Kawawa ang bayan."