15,000 protesters to march vs SONA

July 21, 2009 | By admin |

MANILA, Philippines — About 15,000 people, including those from Southern Tagalog provinces, will converge on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City to protest President Arroyo’s final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27, militant group Bayan announced today.

“On her last SONA, we call on the people to register even 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,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr.

Reyes said protesters will bring with them a giant effigy of a “decaying president” on a throne mounted on a tank.

The Bayan official added that similar rallies will be held nationwide and abroad on July 27, day of the SONA.

Arroyo’s last SONA comes in the wake of moves to change the constitution by convening a constituent assembly or con-ass. Opposition lawmakers have expressed concern that the SONA, when both chambers of Congress are convened, can be used by administration allies to convene the con-ass.

Bayan Southern Tagalog marchers will kick off tomorrow a “Lakbayan” from Cavite, Laguna and Rizal before converging on Ayala Avenue in Makati on July 24. They will hold a short program before proceeding to Manila for a concert at the Liwasang Bonifacio.

Bayan, one of the organizers of the protest march, 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.

Militant groups are set to deliver their own “SONA ng Bayan” highlighting the worsening economic crisis, corruption and all-around misrule of the Arroyo administration. They will be reviewing Mrs. Arroyo’s 10-point agenda, 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 four million unemployed Filipinos every year. There are around one 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. - By Dennis Carcamo (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)