ILOILO City – The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Panay vowed to hold bigger protests when President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month.
“We must not fear Duterte and face him wherever he goes in the country. We must expose and fight his anti-people policies and continued subservience to China and the United States,” said Elmer Forro, the group’s secretary general.
On June 20 when Duterte graced the national convention of the Philippine Councilors League at the Iloilo Convention Center, Bayan Panay welcomed the President with a protest at the Iloilo Business Park.
“He has surrendered our sovereignty to China and has even tolerated the Chinese robbing our Filipino fishermen in exchange for noodles and water,” said Forro.
Bayan Panay also hit Duterte for creating a “disaster” after closing the island of Boracay.
“He has ended the contract of 50,000 workers both in the formal and informal sectors. His promise of land reform comes with declaring that natives of Boracay could sell their land titles to businessmen, consistent with his aim to give out the island to foreign and local capitalists,” said Forro.
Hunger, unemployment, demolition of houses and militarization haunt Boracay residents, lamented Forro, while workers have been sent home to their provinces without assurance of employment.
“Duterte’s TRAIN Law as dictated by US economists has generated all-time high inflation rate for the past years at 4.5 percnt and he has done nothing to reverse its impact to the almost 18 million poor families living below P30,000 a month, added Forro.
Citing a study of independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, Forro said the Duterte administration has dislocated over 723,000 workers from April 2017 to April 2018.
The group also slammed the “human rights violations and crackdown against members of progressive groups.”
“Farmers in Cuartero, Capiz were consistently harassed since May by elements of the 61st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army and just recently, teacher-organizer Ma. Teresa Cabales was arrested and charged with rebellion,” said Forro./PN
