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By Grace S. Uddin
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — Thousands from the different provinces and cities in Southern Mindanao are expected to mass today for a scheduled protest action in time for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo�s State of the Nation Address before the joint session of Congress this afternoon.
Organizers said they expect about 8,000 people, mostly from the progressive groups from Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao City and Compostela Valley Province
The protest would denounce what organizers described as Arroyo�s illegitimate ascendancy to the presidency and the �grave economic conditions of the Filipino people� which the Arroyo administration allegedly failed to address.
Arroyo�s SONA, according to Ariel Casilao, secretary-general of Bayan in Southern Mindanao, �will just be another make-believe set of promises.�
Casilao singled out the series of killings of political activists as one of the regime�s gravest sins against the people.
Since Arroyo took power in 2001, the human-rights group Karapatan has already documented 706 victims of unsolved killings of activists, journalists, church people, lawyers, and even ordinary citizens. Meantime, 183 individuals have disappeared, believed to have been abducted by state security forces.
�With such grave record of human rights violations, Mrs. Arroyo has become Hitler incarnate,� Casilao said.
Thousands of Filipinos have also began gathering in different parts of the country to hold protest actions against the Arroyo administration. (Grace S. Uddin/davaotoday.com)
