Daily Tribune (Philippines)

Misdirecte­d threats

- SOUTHERN OPTICS JUN LEDESMA

Threatenin­g to use force is not the way to address Mindanao’s grievance about the inability and acquiescen­ce of Malacañang to the insidious attempt by the House of Representa­tives to revise the Constituti­on.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año are not reading the people’s pulse, nor have they comprehend­ed the discontent that has found vocal expression and overt people’s demonstrat­ive actions in Davao.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s outbursts are sounding the alarm over the avarice for power in the House of Representa­tives.

What is ominous today might end in uncontroll­able discord tomorrow if it cannot be contained.

Abalos and Año are addressing their threats in the wrong direction. Instead, they should be protecting the Constituti­on from any attempt to amend or revise it by fraudulent means.

This is the devil causing the divisivene­ss, and, therefore, Año should use state forces against the chief architect and his minions that are causing this factious movement and not those who want to protect the sanctity of the supreme law of the land.

Ranged against the knee-jerk reaction of Abalos and Año are the opinions of the learned men of the Supreme Court who are against how the House leadership is pushing the People’s Initiative.

The Senate has made its indivisibl­e stand against the fraudulent means of amending the Constituti­on, which is shared by the retired Supreme Court justices.

Senate Committee on Constituti­onal Reforms Chairperso­n and presidenti­al sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who conducted public hearings on the reported bribery and deception in the signature campaign for the dubious People’s Initiative, has recommende­d dumping the purported signed documents after establishi­ng the prepondera­nce of anomalies in the signature campaign.

Let us not fret over the call of FPRRD to secede and make an issue of it to stonewall what Senator Imee has clearly and emphatical­ly pointed out in her discourses.

She is the first-born child of Ferdinand E.

Marcos Sr., she declared, and time and again on many platforms, stressed that she will not accede to any plot that could lead to the Marcoses seeking shelter anew in other strange lands for decades.

She knows firsthand who is behind the People’s Initiative — the same characters trying to drive a wedge between the Marcoses and Dutertes.

She has admitted a crack in the UniTeam, which the nation overwhelmi­ngly voted for to govern the country. She solemnly vowed to mend that lesion caused by a political polyp.

If we get her right, she will not stop using a scalpel to excise that malignancy.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s outbursts are sounding the alarm over the avarice for power in the House of Representa­tives.

“The Senate has made its indivisibl­e stand against the counterfei­t means of amending the Constituti­on, which is shared by the retired Supreme Court justices.

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