KOMPRe calls for more vigilance in prosecution of Enrile, Estrada and Revilla

The Koalisyon ng Mamamayan para sa Reporma (KOMPRe) reiterates its support for the reform agenda of the Aquino administration to curb corruption. The prosecution of the Senators Estrada, Revilla and Enrile who have been implicated in various schemes using the PDAF and other public funds as their personal treasury sends a strong signal that this government will exact justice for unacceptable acts of stealing from our people.

Devoid of concern for the well being of many poor who have suffered from ravages of past corrupt governments, these so-called public servants thought nothing of re-allocating public money for their selfish ends.

The consistent disclosure of the many whistle blowers sufficiently confirms that these are not mere allegations of wanton excesses, but are deliberate and elaborate schemes to defraud and rob the people of funds intended for better health care, education, needed infrastructure and agricultural support in a nation that has started to feel the benefits of this administration’s reform agenda.

KOMPRe Statement of Support for the Coconut Farmers

For immediate release
19 November 2014
Contact persons:
Mildred Ople – 0935.187.1689
Mardi Mapa-Suplido – 0917.860.9250


KOMPRe (Koalisyon ng Mamamayan para sa Reporma) expresses it support for the coconut farmers in their struggle to attain a just settlement to the Coco Levy issue. It calls on President Aquino to listen to the proposal put forth by the coconut farmers to address an issue of injustice perpetrated by the dictator Marcos at the height of martial law.

The Coco Levy, for so many years was a tax imposed by the then President Ferdinand Marcos on the coconut farmers. It was a scam to deceive the coconut farmers. Ostensibly set up to provide support for the farmers, the fund was instead converted into a well of ill gotten wealth that was used by his cronies for their personal interests.

As such, it conned the farmers of their legitimate income and left them without the needed support to enable them to prosper as they were denied access to its use. The Coco Levy is blatantly unjust and inhuman because it was built on the sweat and toil of the coconut farmers and because it exploited the coconut farmers and robbed them of their legitimate income while propping up a cabal of cronies without regard for the farmers welfare.

KOMPRe Anti-Political Dynasty Manifesto

URGING CONGRESS TO IMMEDIATELY PASS

AN ANTI-POLITICAL DYNASTY LAW

Dynasties are threats to democracy

Acknowledging that political dynasties threaten the country's democratic ideals, the framers of the 1987 Constitution tasked government to guard our reacquired democracy by declaring that “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law” (Article II, Sec. 26).

Unfortunately, 27 years since the constitutional ratification and several governments after, a law has yet to be passed prohibiting political dynasties, which according to Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio (in a decision on the Navarro v. Ermita case) described it as a “phenomenon that concentrates political power and public resources within the control of a few families whose members alternately hold elective offices, deftly skirting term limits.”

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) analyzed the 2013 midterm elections and dynasties in its research paper “The 2013 Philippine Mid-Term Election: An Empirical Analysis of Dynasties, Vote Buying and the Correlates of Senate Votes”, and asserts that “political dynasties refer to members of the same family occupying elected positions either in sequence for the same position, or simultaneously across different positions.”