Press statement of Senator Loren Legarda

Let not our independence be hollow

When General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of Filipinos in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898, it was in the context of the Philippines declaring itself free from subjugation by a foreign power. Tomorrow (June 12), one hundred eleven years to the day since that unfurling of the Philippine Flag and the playing of the Philippine National Anthem for the first time in Kawit, we Filipinos must ask ourselves whether we are truly free as a people.

Have our people been freed from the bondage of poverty, the shackles of social inequity and the vestiges of colonialism? Have we become the true masters of our own fate or are we still imprisoned by notions that we are weak and that we cannot help but be dependent on other nations like the United States?

For her part, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as leader of our nation and as the daughter of the man who caused the shift of our Independence Day celebration from July 4 to June 12, must ask herself if the charter change initiative her administration has been trying to ram down our people's collective throat is in keeping with the late President Diosdado Macapagal's vision of "independence"?

There can be no true claim to freedom unless the social barriers that discriminate between the rich and the poor are brought down. Any Independence Day celebration will be hollow if under the veneer of the festivities, flag-waving and breast-beating, Juan dela Cruz lives a hand-to-mouth existence while many in government enrich themselves off the fat of the land.

On DOH saying dengue deadlier than A(H1N1)

While it may be true that dengue is a far deadlier disease than the flu caused by the A(H1N1) virus, the Department of Health must not belittle the threat posed by the A(H1N1) VIRUS by repeatedly citing dengue's higher fatality rate.

The number of people stricken with A(H1N1) continues to grow and while the DOH is to be lauded for the measures it is implementing against the virus, the DOH's belaboring of the difference between dengue and A(H1N1) comes off, rightly or wrongly, as an unwitting effort to brush aside the dangers posed by THE flu.

I know this perception is not accurate and I would like to join the DOH in asking our people to be also mindful and vigilant of the threat caused by dengue. A lot can be done by our people to prevent the spread of dengue by mosquitoes, especially by removing their breeding grounds on stagnant water.

Let us all do our share in fighting both dengue and A(H1N1).

On people's resounding protest vs chacha

Only those drunk with power would be deaf and blind to the overwhelming expression made by our people against the charter change initiative emanating from the House of Representatives.

It's not yet too late in the day for administration chacha proponents to do what is right, which is to heed our people's call to stop the folly that is con-ass.

After all, we as a people already face a myriad of big problems like our ailing economy and the spread of the A(H1N1) virus for anyone in the administration to create another one that may foment social unrest and a constitutional crisis.