“Walang pagbabago sa ilalim ni Aquino!”; ST citizens march to PNoy’s residence

BY PAUL CARSON

Militant groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Southern Tagalog (BAYAN-ST) trail blazed series of protest actions criticizing President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III as he delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.

Presenting slogans such as “Walang pagbabago sa ilalim ni Aquino (No change under Aquino’s administration)” the protesters marched from Mabuhay Rotonda to Aquino’s former residence at Times Street in Quezon City last July 21.

Andrianne Mark Ng, spokesperson of BAYAN-ST, stated that Aquino’s daang matuwid is daang nakamamatay, as was represented in the effigy prepared by the organizations.

“It presents the perilous path of the Aquino administration that it introduces to Filipinos: budget cuts for different social services such as education and health, sovereignty breaches and the continuing string of human rights violations through counterinsurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan, among other issues,” Ng said.

The militants, upon reaching Times St., were met with a barricade of policemen, which started to beat the labor union members with truncheons at the front line.

Upon cessation of hostilities, the militants held a program criticizing the administration’s continuous negligence of the people in the middle of his administration, adding that the country’s economic progress only benefits the few who profit through big businesses and corruption. Representatives of mass organizations also presented the Aquino administration’s inability to solve these problems.

After the program, the Southern Tagalog delegation prepared for the next day’s SONA ng Bayan, a nationwide protest in anticipation of the President’s SONA. [P]