DAVAO CITY—Progressive groups have set a series of street protests this week to expose the “lies and failure of the government in addressing corruption, poverty, national security, human rights and environment” in time for President Benigno Aquino III’s 4th State of Nation Address (Sona) on July 28.
On Sunday, Sheena Duazo, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-SMR) Regional Secretary General, said that militant groups will hold simultaneous protest actions to “call for Aquino’s ouster and register the people’s outrage.”
Duazo said Aquino’s four years in office only offered “false hopes and empty promises.”
Duazo said residents in areas hit by typhoons and other calamities are still struggling to recover and rebuild their communities “because of government’s inutility and failure to speedily address their concerns such as shelter, livelihood and health, among others.”
Last week, militant groups led by Bayan held a protest action against Aquino’s televised speech which defended the Disbursement Acceleration Program as “arrogant and dictator-like.”
Duazo said sectoral groups will hold their own version of SONA—SOWA (State of the Women’s Address), SOYA (State of the Youth’s Address) and SOWA (State of Worker’s Address).
Meanwhile, urban poor groups Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML) and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino announced on Sunday to mobilize its members and associates “to call for the ouster of President Aquino and the establishment of a government of the masses.”
This as the group believed that “the owners of the companies which were granted projects are heavily-connected with President Benigno Aquino III, as either his close associates or relatives.”
“The fiscal abuse hatched by the Palace could easily translate to anomalous and highly-dubious transactions since it did not go through budget deliberations in Congress for scrutiny,” said KPML leader, Orly Gallano.
Gallano, in a statement said, “the fleshy features of each transaction using DAP funds are what the people want to know. As taxpayers, we have the right to know where our taxes are spent. The devilish side of DAP lies in the details.”
“No amount of sanitizing could hide the fact that the DAP was used for political patronage, undermining of supposed co-equal branches of government, corruption and amassing of wealth of Aquino cronies and relatives through anomalous deals,” the group added.(Mart D. Sambalud/davaotoday.com)
