National democratic activists from the umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) rallied around 20,000 of their members and allies to protest the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Protesters asserted that the protest held simultaneously with the Philippine president’s SONA exposed the true state of the nation.
Once again, the protesters gave Aquino a failing grade, setting the train system breakdown, violations of Philippine sovereignty, K to 12 program, labor contractualization, failed land reform and accountability in pork barrel, Yolanda, Mamasapano and human rights violations as principal issues that earned this mark.
The protesters marched along Commonwealth Avenue but were impeded by layers of heavy barriers to the front and side, which blocked all access to Batasang Pambansa. The barriers were placed a few hundred meters before the turn to Batasan Road, where the protesters originally planned to conduct the rally program. Of the 10,000 police deployed for the SONA, around 6,000 were mobilized to contain the protesters inside the barriers.
Former Bayan Muna partylist representative Teddy Casiño likened Commonwealth Avenue to a cage that enclosed the SONA protest and called this year’s security measures of the government as ‘overkill.’
Worsening poverty, richer billionaires
Casiño belied claims of Aquino that the lives of the poor have improved.
“The billionaires are using the government to rake more money through the Public-Partnership Program (PPP),” said Casiño.
PPP is the flagship economic program of the Aquino administration, where government hires the services or contributes to the capital of a private business to provide services and infrastructure that was previously the sole duty of government.
Casiño criticized the policy as ‘anti-people’ because profit is the motivation of private firms and not public service. He cited the MRT-1 as example, saying that the train system has become the milking cow of billionaires Ayala and Manny Pangilinan.
Meanwhile, President Aquino, in his SONA speech, praised the Conditional Cash Transfer program and highlighted the measure as beneficial in uplifting Filipino people’s lives.
Casiño, however, was unimpressed by the said measure.
“Seventy per cent of our population still live in poverty,” he explained.
A gigantic effigy depicting the Chief Executive on top of a dilapidated MRT train dubbed “Kamatayan Express” (Death Express) was set on fire in Commonwealth Avenue as Aquino started his speech in the plenary hall of Batasang Pambansa.
Continuing subservience
Former Gabriela Womens’ partylist representative Lisa Maza blasted the continuing subservience of Aquino to the US government.
“The US will benefit more from the EDCA,” lamented Maza.
The EDCA or Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was signed by Aquino on August 2014. The agreement paves the way for the positioning of US troops and structures in the country. The naval base in Subic would be used by the US for its F-15 fighter planes, according to Maza.
Maza also criticized China for its incursion into the Philippine territory, calling the rising power from the east an “imperialist.”
“We could not depend on the Aquino administration to defend our country,” said the former Gabriela solon.
Maza stressed the need for unity of the Filipino people as the only way to defend Philippine territory from encroaching imperialist powers US and China.
Ongoing rights violations
Tinay Palabay, Secretary-General of the human rights group Karapatan, criticized the Aquino administration for its continuing violation of human rights in the country.
The group had documented 238 cases of extrajudicial killings during Aquino’s term.
“Even free speech is a crime,” said Palabay, citing the harassment against of leaders of progressive government employees group COURAGE and Kilusang Mayo Uno.
Antonieta Setias-Dizon, a member of COURAGE, was hounded by suspected military agents a few weeks before SONA.
In a statement issued by Karapatan a day after SONA, Palabay criticized the Aquino administration for the criminalization of National Democratic Front peace consultants Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Ruben Saluta, and political prisoner Emmanuel Bacarra.
They were tagged as criminals in Aquino’s SONA speech.
Workers’ woes
“No worker should have died that day,” said Jobert Canillo, spokesperson of Justice for Kentex Workers Alliance, referring to the deadly fire in slipper factory Kentex. On May 13, no less than 72 workers perished in the worst workplace accident in Philippine history.
Canillo was a machine operator who worked for 12 hours and earned P220 daily before fire engulfed the Kentex factory.
According to him, the national government should be held accountable. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued a certificate of compliance even if the firm did not comply with occupational safety and health standards.
Elmer Labog, Chairperson of labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, stressed the worsening labor contractualization under Aquino.
Despite a favorable decision won by contractual workers of Lucio Tan-owned Tanduay Distillery and media giant GMA-7, both firms have not yet complied with the government agency’s order to reinstate them as regular employees.
No genuine land reform in Aquino clan hacienda
Joseph Canlas, spokesperson of farmers’ group Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Central Luzon, asserted that farmers of Aquino-Cojuangco clan-owned Hacienda Luisita remain impoverished due to “Tambiolo Agrarian Reform.”
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of farmers and ordered the total distribution of the contested hacienda, which has a total land area of 6,435 hectares.
However, the Department of Agrarian reform implemented a “tambiolo” or raffle system to distribute farm lots to beneficiaries of sprawling plantation.
Nine out of 10 farmers remain landless, said Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairperson Rafael Mariano in an interview.
Not a single word about the condition of farmers is mentioned in Aquino’s final SONA speech.
Burdensome K-12 program
“K to 12 will be an added burden to the Filipino people,” said De La Salle University Professor and Alliance for Concerned Teachers (ACT) spokesperson David Michael San Juan.
San Juan also described the K to 12 program as being ‘anti-Filipino’ as it seeks to “erase teaching of the Filipino language, history and literature from the curriculum.”
In his SONA speech, Aquino praised the K to 12 program as it will “ensure the ability of the students to be fully developed.”
San Juan said the program only seeks to produce more Mary Jane Velosos.
Veloso is an overseas Filipino worker facing death penalty in Indonesia due to drug charges. She was temporarily granted reprieve after massive protests worldwide.
Aquino presented a video of K to 12 graduate Rezia Joy Jianoran to the crowd at the House of Representatives.
However, the Senior High School (the additional Grades 11 and 12) of the K to 12 program is yet to be added in 2016.
Crisis points left out
BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr. criticized the omission of “crisis points” that defined Aquino’s regime.
“Aquino simply wanted these issues erased from our collective memory, like they never happened,” said Reyes in a statement issued July 29.
Reyes enumerated six key issues that were left out during Aquino’s speech: pork barrel spending, supertyphoon Yolanda, Mamasapano encounter, OFW Mary Jane Veloso, Power rate hikes and the human rights situation.
Donning a teacher’s uniform with a giant report card mounted at the top of her head, actress Mae Paner also known as Juan Change gave the Chief Executive a consistent failing mark for his performance in the last five years. The consistent failing mark in all areas was due that there have been no substantial changes or development in the country, explained Paner.
Alternative system sought
“We should not be fooled in the upcoming elections, nor should we be fooled by Aquino’s ‘Daang Matuwid,’” said BAYAN-Metro Manila Chairperson Mong Palatino, as the SONA protest drew to a close.
“Our problem is not just Aquino, nor is it just the Liberal Party, it is the whole semicolonial and semifeudal system,” he explained.
Palatino called on the people to further strenghten their ranks, stressing the need to advance the struggle for genuine national democracy with a socialist perspective.
“We need a government that will look after the welfare of its people. For as long as the government is at the hands of hacienderos and big businessmen, we could not expect genuine change to happen,” he said.
