On July 27, some 15,000 protesters including marchers from provinces in Southern Tagalog will converge in Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City to protest the last State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
They will bring with them a giant effigy of a “decaying president” on a throne mounted on a tank. The “Gloria Forever “ effigy, the ninth so far created by the artist collective Ugatlahi, is a stinging criticism of apparent moves to keep Arroyo in power beyond her 2010 term.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, one of the organizers of the protest action, also announced that similar rallies and marches will be held nationwide and abroad on the day of the SONA.
“On her last SONA, we call on the people to register ever more clearly our opposition to moves to keep her in power beyond 2010. We call on the people to make a stand against nine years of poverty, corruption, repression and subservience to foreign dictates. On her ninth and last SONA, we say, enough of the lies and deception. It’s time for her to go,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
Bayan also called on lawmakers who will boycott the SONA to express solidarity with the people and attend the street actions. “The People’s SONA will be our counterpoint to the festival of lies in the Batasang Pambansa. We urge the lawmakers to attend the rally and listen to the grievances of the people and to know the real state of the nation,” Reyes said.
Tomorrow, marchers belonging to Bayan Southern Tagalog will kick off a Lakbayan (people’s march) from Cavite, Laguna and Rizal before converging at Ayala Avenue in Makati on July 24. They will hold a short program and then proceed to Manila for a concert at the Liwasang Bonifacio.
Bayan has applied for a rally permit before the office of Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte. The application states that the protests will be between 6am and 6pm. “We urge the good mayor and other city officials to attend the rally or send their representatives to see for themselves the disciplined conduct of the protest and to dispel any notion that rallyists are out to sow violence,” Reyes said.
“We find it irregular that the Philippine National Police keeps on hyping the possibility of violence coming from the ranks of protesters. The police seems to be bent on creating a scenario of chaos to frighten people who are set to join the protests,” he added.
Bayan called the Philippine National Police’s crowd dispersal exercises as part of the “desperate psy-war” being used by the Arroyo regime in the run up to the SONA.
“Their simulations of crowd dispersals and the use of dyes for their water cannons are just plain ridiculous,” Reyes said.
Militant groups are set to deliver their own “SONA ng Bayan” highlighting the worsening economic crisis, corruption and all around misrule of the Arroyo government. They will be reviewing the so-called 10-point agenda of Mrs. Arroyo which she first unveiled during her 2004 SONA.
“Arroyo’s ten-point agenda has fizzled. We don’t see the supposed six million jobs created. There’s an average of 4 million unemployed Filipinos every year. There are around 1 million Filipinos leaving the country every year to look for jobs abroad. This reflects the sorry state of the economy under the Arroyo regime,” Reyes said. ###
