Malacañang said it has nothing to do with changes in the constitutions and appealed for sobriety to the anti-Constitutional Assembly groups, who will stage a protest rally in Makati City on Wednesday, June 10.Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said ”These people are being misinformed by some oppositionists to destroy the image of the Arroyo Administration. We don’t know if the House of Representatives will continue their plans to change the Constitution.”
Secretary Remonde said ”President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Malacañang does not have anything to do with the Con-Ass issue. So we are asking protest rally organizers to be quiet in their Wednesday’s rally in Makati City.”
He also said the opposition’s claim that President Gloria Arroyo, using the charter change and constituent assembly to perpetuate herself in power beyond 2010, are attempts “to demonize the current administration.”
The Press Secretary said the President herself has confirmed — with the merger of Lakas Kampi CMD recently — that the elections would push through in 2010.
He said that all the grim scenarios are being painted by the opposition because of the coming “election season.”
He said the Palace respected the democratic rights of everyone “to express their dissent and feelings about anything, but they must do the same within the boundaries of the law.”
Amid threats of massive protest actions, congressmen-allies of President Arroyo are bent on pursuing Charter change (Cha-cha) via a Senate-less constituent assembly (con-ass).
"If the issue of amending the Charter is unclear to Mrs. Arroyo’s allies, it is crystal clear to senators, who have unanimously approved a resolution that Cha-cha without them would be unconstitutional and illegal," Remonde said.
