LACSON: SUNDAY PRAYER-RALLY GOES BEYOND CHA-CHA

Malacañang and its allies should not expect Sundays prayer-rally to fizzle out just because President Arroyo got off the Cha-cha train, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Friday.

Lacson said the Cha-cha issue is just part of a bigger picture that prompted the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to call for prayer-rallies and similar activities in Manila and in other dioceses nationwide.

The real agenda of Mrs. Arroyo and her allies in shelving Cha-cha is to discourage people from joining the rally. But they are mistaken. The bigger picture is that this rally is a message to the government that the people will not tolerate abuses, which started from scandals like Hello Garci, the P728-million fertilizer scam, and other instances of abusing the peoples intelligence, he said.

He said the latest instance of abusing the peoples intelligence was when Mrs. Arroyo issued a statement that now is not the right time for Charter change followed by appeals from her spokesman and allies that there is no more reason to attend Sundays rally.

So Sundays rally should not be taken as a mere protest against Charter change. It is a message that the people will not tolerate Cha-cha and all other abuses this administration has shown so far, he said.

Lacson said Mrs. Arroyos latest insult against the peoples intelligence came not too long ago, when administration congressmen held three nightly caucuses with her to trigger the railroading of a resolution for a constituent assembly in the Lower House.

The move by pro-Arroyo congressmen to fiercely and wildly change the Charter threw all pretenses out the window and showed a brazen disregard for the rule of law, all just to comply with their master and masterminds instructions, he said.

The people cannot be fooled anymore. They are all too tired to take her word on just anything. But they will not be too tired to show their outrage at being abused and insulted for so long, he said.