FACEBOOK DRIVE VS CON-ASS A “WAKE UP CALL” TO ARROYO ADMINISTRATION
June 18th, 2009Makati Mayor and United Opposition (UNO) president Jejomar C. Binay said the huge success of the internet-based campaign against the Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) resolution in the House should serve as a wake up call to the Arroyo administration.
“Mrs. Arroyo and her allies in Congress are ignoring the cyber-protests against Con-Ass at their own risk,” Binay said.
The opposition leader said the Facebook group “No to Con-Ass” has already reached 63,000 members in a span of two weeks and the number keeps rising.
Created by Noli Benavent, a former Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), the “No to Con Ass” now ranks 65 in a worldwide list of over 28,000 public advocacies on Facebook, a social networking site.
“The internet campaign against Con-Ass should serve as a wake-up call to the Arroyo administration,” he said.
“If there is anything positive about Con-Ass, it has succeeded in bringing together Filipinos of all ages, from all parts of the country and the world under one banner, and that is their opposition to Con-Ass,” he said. This is the new face of political activism,” he added.
Binay said the numbers drawn by the Facebook group, together with the tens of thousands who took to the streets last week in anti-Con Ass rallies held in key cities outside Metro Manila, “represent a very broad coalition” against Con-Ass, which he described as part of several Palace plots to extend Mrs. Arroyo’s stay in power.
These numbers also represent a “ready constituency” that can foil attempts by the administration to impose emergency rule and even martial law, he said.
“If the administration thinks that the people will simply allow them to get away with stealing the elections and stealing democracy, they are gravely mistaken,” he said.
“The House’s Con-Ass resolution has provided a rallying point for the opposition, people’s organizations, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens. They have expressed and will continue to express their protests in the streets and on the internet,” he said.
House allies have said they intend to push for Con-Ass when Congress resumes session in July, despite public outcry over their resolution.
Binay said the opposition and other groups are preparing for another major protest to coincide with Mrs. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“We will send the message that this should be, and will be, her last SONA. This is the last time that she will lie to the people about the true state of the nation,” he said.
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