OPISYAL NA PAHAYAGAN NG ALL UP WORKERS UNION AT ALL UP ACADEMIC EMPLOYEES UNION
Espesyal na Isyu Hulyo 28, 2008

ANG SAMPUNG KATOTOHANAN

Pangwalong SONA na ni Macapagal-Arroyo sa Hulyo 28, 2008. At kung anu-anong mga pangako at kasinungalingan ang binibitiwan taun-taon.

Pero alam natin ang katotohanan:

1. Patuloy na hindi nakakahabol ang ating kita sa taas ng presyo ng bilihin at mga serbisyo. Pati bigas, na siyang batayang pagkain natin, ay umaabot na sa P40 bawat kilo. Kaya nga di nakapagtataka na dumami ang nagugutom sa ating bansa.

2. Walang humpay ang pagtaas ng presyo ng gasolina. Sa loob lamang ng nakaraang anim na buwan ng 2008, tumaas na ng mahigit sa P15 ang diesel at iba pang gasoline.

3. Sa bawat 100 kabataang pumapasok sa Grade 1, isa lamang ang makakatapos ng kolehiyo bunga ng kahirapan at mataas na singilin ng mga eskwelahan kabilang na ang UP

4. Bawal talaga magkasakit dahil sa mahal na singilin sa mga ospital at mga gamot.

5. Hindi pa rin natin natatanggap ang ating BACK COLA dahil sa pagpigil ng DBM sa pagbibigay nito.

6. Araw-araw aabot sa halos 4,000 kababayan natin ang nangingibang bansa para maghanapbuhay

7. Walang tigil ang paglabag sa karapatang pantao at patuloy na nawawala ang higit sa 80 mga kabataan at mamamayan kabilang na ang mga estudyante ng UP na sina Sherlyn Cadapan at Karen Empeño.

8. Hindi natutuldukan ang bintang ng korapsyon ng pamahalaang Arroyo kaugnay ng iba’t ibang iskandalo tulad ng NBN-ZTE.

9. Patuloy na ginagamit ang kapangyarihan ng Pangulo ng Pilipinas para ilagay sa posisyon ang mga matatapat sa kay Macapagal-Arroyo kahit na may mga kwestyon sa kanila tulad ni Neri na ngayon ay itinalaga sa SSS at para mapagtakpan ang mga katiwalian sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng “executive privilege”.

10. Patuloy na umuupo sa pwesto ang isang “pangulo” na “nanalo” bunga ng “Hello Garci” na mga pandaraya.

RAMDAM ANG KAHIRAPAN, HINDI PAG-UNLAD
PAGTITIIS WAKASAN
IGIIT ANG KARAPATANG MABUHAY
IPAGLABAN ANG P3,000 ATB SALARY INCREASE
ALISIN ANG VAT SA LANGIS AT KURYENTE
SINGILIN SI ARROYO SA KANYANG MGA KASINUNGALINGAN AT KATIWALIAN
 

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KALIKASAN-PNE
KALIKASAN? PEOPLES NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
26 Matulungin St. Central District, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Tel./Fax; +63 (2) 924-8756; E-mail: kalikasan.pne@gmail.com

PRESS RELEASE

27 July 2008
Militant environmentalists design a more fitting gown for President Arroyo's SONA

Certain that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can never go green, environmental group Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment designed a more fitting gown for her State of the Nation Address (SONA). The gown is made of garbage plastic bag, metal scraps, and waste materials which the environmental activists called the 'SONA Trash Gown'.

"Arroyo's intended SONA ensemble does not suit her. Her Maria Clara outfit made from organic materials cannot hide the true character of the most environment-unfriendly President Arroyo. If she is to wear an outfit more reflective of her character and reputation, she should choose a clothing made of synthetic and discarded materials doused in toxic chemicals," said Kalikasan-PNE national coordinator Clemente Bautista.

"No amount of make-up or costume can change the anti-environment image of President Arroyo. In her eight-year reign, President Arroyo pushed for and implemented economic policies and programs that allowed the plunder of our natural resources and wrought havoc to our country. Among the laws that Arroyo has authored is the Mining Act of 1995 that allows 100% foreign-owned companies to plunder the mineral wealth of the country, leaving the land barren and despoiled. The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement is another example, as it allows for the entry of toxic chemicals inside Philippine territory," Mr. Bautista pointed out.

Different environmental groups and alliances will join the SONA protest action. They will not only highlight pressing environmental issues but also demand for the ouster of President Arroyo.

"Arroyo's SONA will again be full of trash and hogwash. Eight years are enough. The people and the environment cannot afford this current administration to continue for two more years," said Ester Perez de Tagle, spokesperson of Environment and Natural Resources Advocates for GMA Expulsion or ENRAGED. "The Guimaras Oil Spill and the Sulpicio-endosulfan shipwreck just show how incompetent this administration is in preventing environmental tragedies in our country."

"The most pressing challenge among environmental advocates today is how to save our environment from further devastation. But in order to effectively do this, we must first junk the most toxic president this country has ever had," Mr. Bautista reiterated.

Reference: Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator, KPNE: 09228449787 Ester De Tagle, Spokesperson, ENRAGED: 09176923496

KALIKASAN- People's Network for the Environment is a network of people's organizations (POs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and environmental advocates. It believes that the struggle for the environment is a struggle of the people, thus all environmental action shall have the interest of the majority at their core.

--
CLEMENTE BAUTISTA
National Coordinator
Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE)
No.26 Matulungin St. Bgy, Central, Quezon City, Philippines 1100
Tel. No. +63-2-9248756 Fax No. +63-2-9209099
Email: kalikasan.pne@gmail.com
Website: www.kalikasan.org
 

GMA's Government Must Take Blame for Crisis
by BAYAN MUNA Rep. Satur C. Ocampo
Privilege Speech delivered at the House of Representatives
30 July 2008

Mr. Speaker,

I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege on behalf of my colleagues from the progressive party list bloc to give our views on the President's State of the Nation Address delivered last Monday in time for the opening of our second session.

We in the progressive party list bloc feel it is our obligation to at least give an alternative and truthful view of reality, from the point of view of the underrepresented and marginalized majority that we represent both by commitment and by mandate through popular election.

In the face of the President's lies and distortions, we hope this attempt at presenting the truth will be taken constructively by our colleagues in the Majority.

Ginoong Speaker, noong Lunes, sinimulan ni Gng. Arroyo ang kanyang talumpati sa pamamagitan ng paghuhugas kamay sa matinding kahirapang nararanasan ng ating mamamayan. Ibinaling niya ang sisi sa buong daigdig – sa paggalaw umano ng presyo ng langis at bigas sa international market at paghina ng ekonomiya ng US.

The President was trying to be clever by blaming everything but herself, her government, and her policies for the miserable state of the Filipino people. Worse, she even had the gall to claim that if not for her "foresight, grit and political will," the situation would have been worse. In the end, she turned reality on its head by repackaging the unjust and oppressive VAT into an ultimate panacea.

Clearly, the President is so used to lying that she can't help it.

Ano ba ang katotohanan, Ginoong Speaker? What is the real state of the nation?

The fact is that even before the dramatic increases in world oil and food prices, the poverty rate in the Philippines was already rising, family incomes were falling and the gap between the rich and poor was widening. Mula pa 2003, dumarami na ang bilang ng ating mahihirap, bumabagsak ang kita ng karaniwang pamilya, at lumalaki ang pagitan ng mahirap at mayaman.

Ayon sa pinakahuling Family and Income Expenditure Survey (FIES), bumaba ang kita ng halos siyam sa bawat sampung pamilyang Pilipino. Kontrolado ng pinakamayamang 20% ng pamilya ang mahigit kalahati (52%) ng kabuuang kita habang ang yaman ng pinakamayamang 20 Pilipino ay katumbas ang sa 10.4 milyon nating kababayan.

According to research think tank IBON Foundation, the number of people jobless or otherwise looking for more work because they were earning so little from their current jobs increase by 2.2 million in 2007 from 2001. The number of unemployed increased by over 400,000 and of underemployed by 1.8 million. The 630,000 jobs supposed to be created each year are not enough to make up for the annual increase in labor force of some 690,000.

Alam ng ating mamamayan na walang saysay ang pinagyayabang na paglago ng ekonomiya noong 2007. It was during this period that the share of agriculture to GDP reached a historic low of 18.4%. In 2007, the share of manufacturing to GDP had deteriorated to its lowest level since 1956. Dahil higit pang humina ang agrikultura at pagmamanupaktura, mahigit 10 milyon ang walang trabaho o naghahanap pa ng dagdag na trabaho.

Dumarami rin ang bilang ng mga batang hindi nakakapag-aral, pati mga ina at sanggol na hindi naseserbisyuhan ng ating mga ospital at health center.

The point I'm making, Mr. Speaker, is that despite glowing GDP and GNP figures, poverty is increasing, incomes are dwindling, prices are skyrocketing, and joblessness is increasing. For Mrs. Arroyo to casually blame this phenomena of jobless, inequitable growth on external shocks is to evade responsibility and accountability for her flawed economic policies.

VAT

Mrs. Arroyo's much loved value added tax is a prime example of such unjust and oppressive economic policies. In 2006, the already miserable situation of our people was further exacerbated by the expansion and increase of the VAT to include oil, power, medicines, instant noodles and a host of other products and services. Overnight, government coffers were overflowing from the increased taxes imposed on our ordinary, mostly poor, consumers.

Today, the cruelty of the VAT is manifested in the VAT on oil. Not only does VAT make oil prices higher by P6 to P7 per liter, it also rakes in an annual bonanza of P18.8 billion to P30 billion in windfall tax revenues. These are surplus collections and therefore not covered by the General Appropriations Act. Through the VAT on oil, the government is actually cashing in on the people's misery.

Ang sabi ni Mrs Arroyo, pumayag na tayo sa VAT dahil meron naming limang bilyong "Katas ng VAT" na ipinamumudmod sa mahihirap. Unang-una, talaga bang sa mahihirap ito napupunta at hindi sa bulsa lamang ng kanyang mga opisyal? Pangalawa, limang bilyon lang ang ipinamimigay pero mahigit P18 hanggang P30 bilyon ang sobrang kinokolekta. Saan napupunta ang iba?

But that is just as far as the VAT on oil is concerned. How about the other windfall VAT revenues resulting from the general increase in prices of goods and services, considering that inflation is at 11.4%, the highest in 14 years? No wonder that the DOF, in several hearings of the House Ways and Means Committee, has refused to provide Congress with pertinent data on VAT collections and disbursements. Ayaw nilang malaman kung gaano talaga kalaki ang kotong sa VAT.

Indeed, where does the VAT go? The fact is that the biggest beneficiaries of VAT are not our people but our creditors who will be paid 62% of all government revenues this year. During the deliberations on the tax measures in 2005, we were informed by the Department of Finance that as much as 80% of additional revenues from the new taxes would go to our creditors. No wonder a year after the imposition of VAT, we were paying loans in advance to the detriment of the budgets for health, housing, education and other social services. No wonder the credit rating agencies are ecstatic that we are taxing our people to death just to pay our debts.

Kinumpirma ni Gng. Arroyo na pambayad ng utang ang VAT. Sa kanyang SONA sinabi niya: "Napakahalaga ng VAT…una nabawasan ang ating mga utang…"

Again, it is a clever ruse of Mrs. Arroyo to justify an oppressive, windfall-earning tax by saying that she's returning it to the poor anyway. In the first place, the poor would be better off without the government collecting kotong on their taxes. Removing the VAT on electricity would immediately and perpetually reduce the bills of lifeline rate customers by at least P66.79 a month forever, definitely more than a one-time dole out of P500. This will cost the government a mere P12.4 billion, a pittance compared to the more than P140 billion in annual uncollected duties on imported goods.

Removing the VAT on oil, on the other hand, would immediately prevent another round of fare hikes and possibly even lead to a rollback in jeepney and bus fares. That may be nothing to the rich but definitely something substantial for the poor.

Kung talagang nag-aalala si Mrs. Arroyo sa mga mahihirap na maybahay, sa mga manggagawa at magsasaka, dapat ay tanggalin na niya ang VAT sa langis at kuryente.

Katulad ng pagdepensa niya sa VAT, pinagpililitan din ni Mrs. Arroyo ang patakarang deregulasyon sa industriya ng langis. Perhaps the most glaring example of the failure of neoliberal economic policy can be seen in the oil industry. Sampung taon na mula nang ma-deregulate ang industriya ng langis at ibenta ang Petron sa mga dayuhan. Mula noon, hindi man lang natupad ang pangako ng murang gasolina o pagbuwag ng kartel ng dayuhang oil companies.

Today, the government is reduced to pleading for mercy from the oil companies who continue to rake in superprofits from their cartel operations in the country. In fact, the DOE cannot even explain to us the oil cartel's pricing mechanism. Their claims of under-recoveries are considered Gospel truth. Under deregulation, government has become inutile in the face of the oil companies rapacious greed.

Kung talagang nag-aalala si Mrs. Arroyo sa mahihirap, ibabasura niya ang deregulasyon sa langis, kokontrolin ang presyo, ibabalik ang Petron sa pagmamay-ari ng publiko, at sisimulan ang sentralisadong pag-angkat ng ating pangangailangan sa langis at produktong petrolyo.

In her SONA, the President made much ado about her thrust towards self-sufficiency in rice, as if this were really her policy. The fact is that the Arroyo government had long abandoned the policy of self-sufficiency in rice and agriculture. We have not been self-sufficient in rice not because of the limits of our topography but due to the limits of our government's imagination and political will.

It is an outrage, for example, that a substantial portion of the NFA's resources are used to subsidize farmers from other countries where we import rice from. While farmers in other countries get full support in terms of technology, production inputs, credit and infrastructure, our lowly rice farmers are basically left to fend for their own. Wala na ngang suporta, kinokotongan pa ng mga opisyal ng gobyerno ang fertilizer at seed funds at iba pang pondong pang magsasaka.

Central to the issue of agriculture is the issue of agrarian reform.

Mrs. Arroyo is pushing for the extension of an agrarian reform program that has proven to be insufficient at best, a sham at worst. In her SONA, Mrs. Arroyo noted, "There are those who say agrarian reform is a success – if only because anything is better than nothing." Now she would even make it worse by allowing CARP lands to be used as collateral, a measure that would further transform CARP beneficiaries into not into agribusinesses as she claims, poor and indebted peasants.

Mr. Speaker, the bankruptcy of the government's economic policies is reflected in its penchant for quick-fixes, palliative measures and dole outs. All government wants to do is to create safety nets because they don't have the guts to change their disastrous free market economic policies.

Mrs. Arroyo refuses to accept the flaws in her economic policy and so is limited to scrambling for dole outs to quell the people's dissatisfaction. Such is the so-called new social welfare program unveiled by her last Monday. These dole outs are especially attractive to Mrs. Arroyo and her candidates for the 2010 elections who are desperately trying to score brownie points in the face of their dwindling popularity ratings.

Speaking about satisfactory ratings, Mrs. Arroyo was conspicuously silent on the systematic plunder of the national coffers under her administration. Since 2005, it has been the policy of the Arroyo government to cover up every anomaly involving the President and her family. Until now there is no closure to the IMPSA deal, the Jancom contract, the Diosdado Macapagal Avenue overprice, the fertilizer fund scam, the Hello Garci tapes, the Venable contract, the NBN-ZTE deal and similar questionable transactions involving the highest leaders of the land.

This policy of cover up has led to the undermining of systems of transparency and accountability that are supposed to be the bedrock of good governance. In particular, the Executive's actions have led to the bastardization of the impeachment process and the sabotaging of Congress' function of legislative oversight.

She was also conspicuously silent on the issue of human rights and peace. In the face of the people's protests against the government's flawed economic and political policies, Mrs. Arroyo has resorted to the systematic violations of the people's civil and political rights in order to quell dissent and ensure her survival in office.

The killings and enforced disappearances have not stopped. Since Mrs. Arroyo's presidency in January 2001 to June this year, the human rights organization Karapatan has documented 910 victims of extrajudicial killings, 193 victims of enforced disappearances, and 331 cases of frustrated killings. For the first six months of 2008, Karapatan has documented 20 cases of extrajudicial killings, one case of enforced disappearance, 41 cases of illegal detention and 67 cases of illegal arrest. The surveillance, harassment and physical attacks against progressive organizations and their members have likewise not stopped.

Hardly any of the perpetrators have been investigated, arrested or tried, leading to a culture of impunity among state security forces and state-backed para-military groups.

Again, this is a question of policy, particularly the counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya which, since 2001, has targeted activists and political dissenters as enemies of the state.

Mr. Speaker, the true state of the nation is quite the opposite of what Mrs. Arroyo envisioned last Monday.

Gloria Arroyo cannot evade blame for this dire state of the nation by pointing to external causes as the culprits. What cannot be denied or hidden by contrived statistics is that the Philippine economy's growth has been gravely stunted. It has remained basically backward, with neither a modern agricultural base nor an industrial backbone to speak of, all because the Arroyo regime, like her redecessors, has adamantly stuck to the anti people neo-liberal globalization prescriptions of the IMF-WB-WTO triad – liberalization, deregulation and privatization.

By her canine devotion to both these multilateral instruments of global capitalist plunder and to the discredited George W. Bush administration, Mrs. Arroyo has encouraged the marginalization of our farmers, the demise of many industries, the assaults of labor unions.

By her policies she has deprived the economy and her government of any defensive shield and flexibility to withstand the destructive impacts of the frequently recurring crisis of global capital.

The fact is that there are more poor, hungry and jobless Filipinos than ever before. The fact is that it is government's neoliberal economic policies that have magnified the negative impacts of external shocks on the local economy. The fact is that unabated graft and corruption has made matters even worse. The fact is that human rights continue to be trampled and peace remains a pipe dream.

And the fact is that the government and the President is to blame for the hardships that have befallen our people.

This is the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in. The earlier we recognize this the better it will be for efforts to address our people's yearning for democracy and reform.

Thank you. #