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Colmenares seeks to block charter change in Senate bid

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Gillan Ropero, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Tuesday said he aspires to be a senator in order to oppose the administration&#x27;s plan for charter change (cha-cha).Colmenares, a human rights lawyer and activist, said charter change could push through should the administration win all 12 seats of Senate in next year&#x27;s midterm polls.&quot;Cha-cha will open up the country for the transnational corporations, no term limits, no political dynasty prohibition, and of course cancellation of elections in one of the provisions,&quot; Colmenares said in ANC&#x27;s Beyond Politics.&quot;So I think a control of the administration in the Senate would pave the way for cha-cha if it&#x27;s not approved before the 2019 elections. So that&#x27;s one motivation.&quot;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares warns of possible abuse of power with the lack of term limits in Arroyo&#x27;s draft constitution which was rejected by the Senate. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeyondPolitics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BeyondPolitics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ANCRecap?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ANCRecap</a> <a href="https://t.co/KQx5Tuamyz">pic.twitter.com/KQx5Tuamyz</a>— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANCALERTS/status/1059821434028023813?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2018</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Colmenares said he &quot;vehemently&quot; opposes cha-cha, which he described as &quot;dictatorial.&quot;&quot;This cha-cha is enticing too many, from senators down to local officials. Imagine, you&#x27;re taking out term limits, so there&#x27;s no need for a senator or congressman to step down for one term. Secondly, political dynasty is always an issue,&quot; he said.&quot;That&#x27;s why we need a very strong Senate who will say no to cha-cha even if it benefits them.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/10/08/18/dangerous-proposal-no-term-limits-in-arroyos-proposed-constitution">&#x27;Dangerous proposal&#x27;: No term limits in Arroyo&#x27;s proposed Constitution</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/focus/10/10/18/why-arroyos-draft-federal-constitution-is-under-fire">Why Arroyo&#x27;s draft federal constitution is under fire</a></li></ul>Colmenares, who seeks a second attempt at a Senate seat, said he will push for the end of contractualization and the repeal of excise taxes under the first tranche of the tax reform law if he becomes a senator. &quot;It&#x27;s very difficult for a candidate now to say you&#x27;re against contractualization, but we&#x27;re going for it. At least to show to the workers that this is important, that they need this,&quot; he said.Colmenares said the Makabayan Party-list would rely on its members and social media presence for its electoral campaign.&quot;We can link our issues like land reform, like contractualization. My platform is contractualization, so they can actually segue to that during the campaign. Secondly, I would like to think we are one of the most formidable forces in social media,&quot; he said.The former lawmaker is also hoping that voters would consider the candidates&#x27; track record come May 2019.&quot;As I&#x27;ve mentioned always, one of the questions that people will be asking during this 2019 elections: What was your vote for TRAIN? We can look them straight in the eye and say we really voted no because we warned government it&#x27;s going to increase inflation,&quot; he said.&quot;Those issues joined will hopefully make it clear for the people to distinguish which one should we want to go to the Senate and which ones we don&#x27;t trust, who will be consistent for our side if he or she becomes a senator.&quot;

Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Tuesday said he aspires to be a senator in order to oppose the administration's plan for charter change (cha-cha).

Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Tuesday said he aspires to be a senator in order to oppose the administration's plan for charter change (cha-cha).

Colmenares seeks to block charter change in Senate bid

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Colmenares seeks to block charter change in Senate bid

Gillan Ropero,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 07, 2018 01:43 AM PHT

Read More:

Neri Colmenares

ANC

Beyond Politics

Halalan 2019

charter change

contractualization

TRAIN Law

Senate

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