|
An Open Letter to President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo
From farmers without lands, masses without food on the table
On the occasion of the 8th State of the Nation Address of
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
July 28, 2008
MRS. PRESIDENT:
We are called tillers of the land. From our sweat and blood, from our
wrinkled hands come the food that feeds this nation.
Or at least, this should be the case.
What has happened to the tillers of the soil, to us you fondly called the
“masses”?
Farmers we may be called but we have lost our lands to corporate greed.
Our dignity has been stolen over years of servitude to landed elites who
flank this government’s ring of power and influence.
What now Mrs. President of your SONA promises wherein you promised cheap
rice and a prosperous farmer, rice self-sufficiency, and the increased
income and harvest of the rural folks?
This regime did nothing to alleviate poverty wrought by centuries of
landlessness. Band – aid solutions and dole outs did nothing to realize
your promises of prosperity. You lifted not a finger to change our
pitiable situation under a fake and deceitful Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP). Instead, you have allowed the small percentage of
rich and landed families, with whom you belong, the monopoly of vast
tracks of lands.
CARP beneficiaries has been tied to their necks paying for high
amortization rates while those who acquired small parcels of land are left
without government subsidy as millions of supposed loan fund for farmers
such as the P 700 Million fertilizer fund scam and the P 3 Billion grand
swine scam have been used to oil electoral campaign machineries or to
bribe the gluttons in government and military, the only people whom we say
you have protected and served.
Seven years under your regime has made CARP instrumental in the swift
disenfranchisement of peasants’ lands. Plunder of our lands and resources
exacerbated under Arroyo, “the economist’s” Medium Term Development Plan,
the local expression of a neoliberal policy dictated by the GATT – WTO and
other capitalist countries and institutions.
Your administration has encouraged the stagnation of the country’s
agricultural industry which has slackened to a more appalling condition as
the country’s dependence on importation and reliance on exportation
heightened, primarily on the importation of rice and the export of cash
crops intended for the foreign market.
You have been the primary agent in the surrender our lands and patrimony
to foreign plunder as your flagship development program, clearly marked
with dogged obeisance to foreign interest, has hastened and become more
blatant.
We have lost our lands to plantations now owned and run by multinational
and transnational companies –-- of bananas, pineapples, rubber and
jathropa --- which have transformed thousands of hectares of rice lands,
thereby dislocating farmers and indigenous folks and destroying farmlands.
Land use and crop conversion, which is the core of the highly- denounced
Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which your
administration is then again insisting on in the Senate despite the
peoples’ opposition, has turned farmers into paid farm laborers who have
been rendered to abuse and the exploitation due to extremely low wages.
At the wake of the national economic crisis your administration has
brought this country into, your iron-fisted policy has mercilessly snuffed
out the voices of resistance from among us who dare to speak, who dare to
fight for land, for what is due our toil.
Since 2001, 105 farmer leaders under KMP have been slain by your
mercenaries in the military. Until now, we grieve and draw strength from
the death of our leader and colleague Celso Pojas, former KMP
Spokesperson.
As we clamor for justice over his death, and the death of hundred others
whose lives were unjustly and brutally taken, mark our words when we say
that the millions of farmers whose lands, their blood and soul, you have
sold to the devil, will claim their just retribution.
Farmers, we urge you, with your hunger, your grief, your will to fight for
what is rightly ours, join the Filipino peoples’ fight for genuine
democracy and freedom.
Defend the farmer’s rights to land and genuine land reform!
End the repression against farmers, and the rural poor!
Justice for peasant martyr Celso Pojas and all victims of extrajudicial
killings under this dangerous regime!
Signed:
Pedro Arnadao
Vice-Chairperson,
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas – Southern Mindanao Region
With the rest of the KMP Executive Council
|
|
 |
July 28, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thousands of youth join People's SONA
'Caring mother' unfitting image for Arroyo – youth groups
Some 5,000 students and out-of-school youth today held 'street classes' in
the People's SONA rally to counter 'the expected lies and deceit' of
Gloria Arroyo's eight State of the Nation Address.
Students from UP, PUP, UST, Adamson, FEU, De La Salle, College of St.
Benilde, Lyceum, Letran, PLM, Trinity University, PCU, GAUF, St.
Scholastica, Mapua, UP Manila, Jose Rizal University, TIP, PSBA, Ateneo de
Manila, Miriam College, Sta. Isabel, PNU, St. Paul University, Arellano
University, EARIST, MLQU and some high schools in Metro Manila gathered at
11:00 in the morning in Tandang Sora before marching towards the People's
SONA rally in Ever Commonwealth.
They were joined by contingents from the National Union of Students of the
Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Student Christian
Movement, Kabataang Pinoy, League of Filipino Students, Anakbayan,
KARATULA, Gabriela-youth, Liga ng Kabataang Moro, League of Students for
the Environment, Youth Revolt and Kristiyanong Kabataan para sa Bayan.
The youth protesters huddled into clusters for their 'street classes'
while listening to Arroyo deliver her speech from the main stage's sound
system.
"There is no more unfitting image for Arroyo than the 'caring mother'
figure she is trying to project. There really is no point in listening to
another SONA of more lies and deceit. Not in her SONA or in any statement
could Arroyo deny the worst economic crisis and political instability that
Filipinos have experienced during her 8-year reign. Arroyo is as caring as
the devil himself," said LFS chairperson Vencer Crisostomo.
"How can a caring mother stand a national average of 80 percent dropping
out of school every year? This is a result of a yearly declining budget
for the education sector, something that Arroyo's so-called 'welfare
packages' will find impossible to remedy," NUSP President Alvin Peters
said.
Citing data from the 2008 national budget, CEGP President Vijae Alquisola
said that the Arroyo administration spends a measly P12 per student a day
while it allots P14 per M14 bullet under military spending. "This is the
kind of militaristic government we have. No wonder Arroyo yearly chooses
to overlook the continuing problem of extra-judicial killings and
political repression in her SONA."
For his part, Kabataang Pinoy president Dion Cerrafon criticized 'yet
another over-spending for Arroyo's luxury and face-lift attempts' in the
P90 million spent for the renovation of Batasang Pambansa in time for the
SONA. "Arroyo continues to be shameless in her lavishness amid extreme
poverty and economic crisis. How she can face millions of Filipinos in her
organic yet surely overly expensive piña gown is a blatant reminder of
just how 'caring' she is," Cerrafon said.
SCM Chairperson Biyaya Quizon said, "We are expected to tighten our belts
while Arroyo and cabal are flaunting their affluence. Where is the social
justice in that? It is a moral imperative for us Christians to join in the
protests today against all the injustices that are enslaving our land."
Anakbayan chairperson Ken Ramos said, "How can this government expect
Filipinos to cope with meager wages in light of fare hikes? So-called
'welfare packages' and dole-outs are but fleeting and insufficient.
Arroyo, as usual, did not give us anything substantial and concrete in her
SONA, just empty promises and grandstanding."
The youth groups announced that they are preparing their own SONA of the
Youth protest rally in the coming days. ###
Reference: Sarah Katrina Maramag, CEGP Deputy Secretary-General,
09193486790
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 25, 2008
Press Statement
State of the Nation's Youth
As Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo prepares to deliver her eighth State of the
Nation Address (SONA), the youth and students across the country is
preparing for another class walk-out this coming Monday to join other
sectors in a protest rally where the real state of the nation shall be
heard.
For us, a bleak future has become the legacy of the Arroyo administration.
For the past seven years, education has become less accessible for
Filipino students as a result of the rising cost of tuition and other fees
collected in our schools. Besides the worsening crisis in the education
sector, we also face rising food and fuel prices bringing along with them
the cost of other basic commodities.
Based on the budget received by the Department of Education, the
government spends only P12 per student per day. This is appallingly less
than the P14 that they spend on an M16 bullet. In fact, government subsidy
to education has been on a consistent decline since Arroyo came to power.
In 2001, the government was spending a measly 3.3% of the country's Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) on education. The amount, which already falls short
of the United Nations prescription of a minimum 6% of the GDP, dropped to
2.4% in 2006.
Since 2001, the national average tuition rate has risen by almost 70%. In
the National Capital Region, the average tuition rate has risen by
118.53%. Other than tuition fees, ridiculous miscellaneous fees continues
to be invented and collected by schools and universities. Examples of
these include are the postal fee, insurance fee, Smart fee and copier fee
at the AMA Computer University, power charge fee at the Trinity University
of Asia among many others.
This is the result of the continued coddling of the Arroyo government of
capitalist vultures who prey on the misery of their students. Since last
year, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has relinquished its power
to control tuition hikes in private schools by suspending CHED Memorandum
14 and its amendments, thereby deregulating tuition hikes in private
tertiary institutions by removing the tuition cap which was pegged at the
annual inflation rate.
Iskolars ng Bayan (Scholars of the People) that are enrolled in State
Colleges and Universities (SCUs) are not exempt from the rising cost of
education. Arroyo's tuition moratorium stopping tuition hikes in SCUs this
year is over a year late for freshmen enrolled at the University of the
Philippines that implemented a 300% tuition hike in 2006 and for students
at the Eugelio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST)
that raised its tuition from P15 to P100 per unit, a 600% increase.
At the same time, miscellaneous fees are not covered by the worthless
moratorium. UP's miscellaneous fees rose at an average of P1,500-P2,000
from P500-P800. The Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)
meanwhile has implemented a P250 Development Fee this academic year.
But it is not only rising tuition and school fees that the students have
to cope up with. Our parents and us have to bear the brunt of the economic
crisis. It is estimated that a family spends as much as P20,000 pesos on
transportation, food, and school supplies for every child each school
year.
Thus, it no longer comes as a surprise that more and more students are
dropping out of school each year. Only 58 out of every 100 students that
enter Grade 1 enters high school and only 14 of them is estimated to earn
a college degree.
We therefore call on our fellow students to go out on the streets this
Monday where the real state of the nation shall be heard. Enough with
Arroyo's empty promises, and lies that "Ramdam ang Kaunlaran" (Progress is
felt). Only by removing a corrupt president who has sold us to capitalist
educators can we hope for a brighter future. ###
Reference:
Vencer Crisostomo, LFS Chairperson, 09228262606
Ken Ramos, ANAKBAYAN Chairperson, 09215129678
--
Visit the new website of the LFS!
http://www.lfs.ph
|
|
KATAS NG VAT NI GLORIA:
KUKURAKOT AABUSO TIBA-TIBA SI ARROYO SA VAT
Pahayag ni Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Liza Maza
SONA ng Mamamayan, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City
Hulyo 28, 2008
Mainit na pagbati sa bawat isa sa ating tumitindig at nagpapahayag ng
tunay na kalagayan ng mamamayan, ng tunay na SONA. Ang pagbuhos natin sa
lansangan sa araw na ito hindi lamang sa Maynila kundi sa mga probinsya ay
patunay lamang na isinusuka natin ang mala-pantaseryeng drowing ng
kaunlaran ng peke, korap at abusadong lider ng sindikatong nasa
Malakanyang, si Gng. Arroyo.
Sabi ni Gng. Arroyo, “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran”. Ang totoo, ramdam ng mga
nanay at kababaihan ang kirot ng sikmura sa bawat pagtaas ng presyo ng
bilihing pinatawan ng VAT. Ang totoo, ramdam na ramdam natin ang init ng
araw, at buhos ng ulan habang parang timawa tayong pinapipila sa mga limos
na subsidyo sa kuryente’t bigas. Sabi ni Gloria, magpasalamat kayo, ito
raw ay “Katas ng VAT”.
Pawang panloloko! Alam ba ninyo kung ano ang totoong ibig sabihin ng KATAS
ng VAT? Kukurakot, Aabuso, Tiba-tiba si Arroyo Sa VAT. Kaya sa kabila ng
malwakang panawagan ng mamamayan para ibasura ang 12% VAT na ipinapataw sa
lahat ng ating mga bilihin at binabayaran, ayaw itong alisin ni Gloria.
Malaki ang pakinabang niya sa Katas ng VAT. Kukurakot Aabuso Tiba-tiba si
Arroyo Sa VAT.
Nitong nakaraang buwan naglaan daw si Gloria ng P4B Katas ng VAT para sa
subsidyo sa mga tsuper, sa mga senior citizen, sa mga pautang at sa mga
biktima ng bagyong Frank. Dapat ba nating ipagpasalamat yun? Alam ba
ninyong mula nang masimulan ang maanomalyang Northrail project ay may
binabayaran tayong P18M kada buwan? Walang proyektong nagaganap, pero may
mga kickback at panunuhol na matagal nang naganap. Saan galing ang
pinambabayad sa proyektong ito? Katas ng VAT.
Samantala’y, tuloy na tuloy pa rin daw ang Cyber Education Project. Hindi
natin ito kailangan. Pero, ang halagang inutang para dito? P20B. Limang
beses na mas mataas sa P4B inilaan daw sa maralita. Sino ba ang
makikinabang? Kani-kaninong mga bulsa ba ang nag-uumapaw dahil sa mga
proyektong ODA ni Gng Arroyo na bumubuo sa mahigit 40% sa mga utang
panlabas ng ating bansa? At sinong magbabayad nito? Sabi nga ni Gng.
Arroyo, Katas ng VAT. Kukurakot Aabuso Tiba-tiba si Arroyo Sa VAT.
Magnanakaw! Sa bawat pisong dagdag sa presyo ng bilihin dahil sa VAT iisa
lang ang nakikinabang sa Katas nito. Wala na ngang maibadyet ang mga
kababaihan, ang ating mga pamilya’y walang na ngang makain, pamasahe,
maipampa-aral o maipang-ospital, pinahihirapan, pinagnanakawan niloloko pa
tayo ng sindikato ni Gng. Arroyo. Papayag pa ba tayo? Tama na, sobra na!
Gloria Arroyo, paalisin na natin, ngayon na! #
|
 |
