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Groups resume protests in Mendiola to press for Aquino’s resignation

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Mendiola, Manila
February 27, 2015

Various groups today marched to the historic mendiola bridge to again press for the resignation of President Benigno Aquino III in the aftermath of the bloody Mamasapano incident. This time the multisectoral groups were joined by students from different universities in Manila who marched from different points going to Mendiola. It was the first big protest march to Mendiola one month after the Mamasapano incident.

“From EDSA we return to Mendiola, which is near the seat of power. We come from various communities, school and workplaces demanding that the current leadership step down and that a People’s Council for National Unity, Reforms and Peace be established,”said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“The people’s demand for genuine change is spreading across the country. The lying president must go along with the rotten social system. People Power should lead to something more beneficial than just a change of leadership and a return to the old ways,” he added.

Speakers at the protest action discussed Aquino’s role in the Mamasapano incident, corruption issues, human rights violations, failed social services and other economic issues.

The protests come at a time when the French president Francois Hollande is holding a 2-day state visit to the Philippines. “Aside from brushing up on his French, now would be good time for Aquino to read up on the French revolution to remember what motivates people to rise up in struggle,” Reyes added.

The groups decried the Palace cover-up of aquino’s role in Mamasapano. “The Palace story line changes every week. The congressional hearing are being influenced to clear the President of any liability and instead pin all blame on officials such as General Napenas and General Purisima to run the operation along with the involvement of the US government,” Reyes said.

“We will be awaiting the results of the probe of the Board of Inquiry next week. we however won’t be surprised if the report clears the President of any wrongdoing. That is already a given. Still, from what has been revealed so far, the president cannot escape accountability,”he added.

More mass protests are expected to take place in the coming weeks in anticipation of the release of the finding of the PNP Board of Inquiry and as hearings at the House of Representatives are set to resume.

Bayan Ko: People Power 1 @29

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBFa5FKqoxg

February 25, 2015

This year’s EDSA anniversary coincides with the first month of the Mamasapano incident and what could well be the worst political crisis to hit the Aquino administration. Protests across the nation were held to call for Aquino’s accountability in Mamasapano. In Manila, groups held an interfaith prayer and human chain despite being blocked by hundreds of police along EDSA Santolan.

Pahayag ng Bagong Alyansang Makabayan sa ika-29 anibersaryo ng People Power 1

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February 25, 2015

This year’s EDSA anniversary coincides with the first month of the Mamasapano incident and what could well be the worst political crisis to hit the Aquino administration. Protests across the nation were held to call for Aquino’s accountability in Mamasapano. In Manila, groups held an interfaith prayer and human chain despite being blocked by hundreds of police along EDSA Santolan.

“The nation is at a crossroads. Whether to simply accept a lying, inept and puppet President or to continue the great tradition of People Power for genuine change. We choose the latter. We choose to fight for truth and accountability and meaningful change. Thus, Aquino must go,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“The past month has seen the President repeat one lie after another in order to escape accountability in the Mamasapano debacle. Aquino merely shuffles the blame between SAF Director Napenas to suspended PNP Chief Purisima. Aquino takes none for himself. He has no regrets authorizing a suspended general to run the operation,” Reyes added.

Bayan said that Aquino’s biggest sin to date is authorizing a suspended PNP chief to run a sensitive operation via remote control while disregarding all necessary government coordination. “The problem is not that Purisima lied to Aquino. The problem was Aquino placing a suspended official in charge and relying on that official instead of the proper government officials and agencies. The problem was the President all along. Now he lies to us repeatedly to cover-up his role,” Reyes said.

Bayan said that Aquino cannot continue invoking the memory of his parents and the anti-dictatorship struggle just to shield himself from any accountability. “EDSA was also about holding those in power accountable. Aquino cannot make himself an exception in the quest for truth and accountability,” Reyes added.

“EDSA is not about one color (yellow) nor the plight of one family. It is about the people rising up for change,” he added.

Power of the People

The group said that in the face of the lies and cover up of the President, the people are called on to summon the great tradition of “people power”.

“The power of the people is truly realized in united action. It is a potent weapon for change. Yet in the past, its fruits have largely been enjoyed only by a few, as the rotten social system remains. It is therefore necessary that people power yield something more than business-as-usual outcomes,” Reyes said.

In calling for a People’s Council for Unity, Reforms and Peace to immediately replace Aquino before holding elections, Bayan is hoping that the next people power would be more beneficial to the people and would pave the way for more meaningful changes.

“Apart from calling on Aquino to step down, the people demand land reform, national industrialization, sovereignty and peace. There is of course no illusion that one ‘people power’ would be able to achieve all these. It would necessary that the people wield their power as often as possible to advance these goals,” he added.

Bayan will lead a march to Mendiola on February 27 to again call on Aquino to step down. It is expected to be the first major protest near the Palace after the Mamasapano incident. ###

PNP blockade betrays Aquino’s growing unpopularity

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Participants in yesterday’s planned prayer and human chain activity to call for justice and accountability on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the first People Power uprising vented their ire on police officers who blocked their path and caused metro-wide gridlocks. Instead of sustaining the people’s solidarity in light of the Mamasapano debacle that butchered 44 of their colleagues, the police’s duplicity wasted the rare goodwill heaped on them by the people, the participants said.

Church leaders revealed in their speeches the excuses offered by police commanders who previously agreed to plans laid out by event organizers. These were greeted by jeers and hoots by the event participants.

A human chain was nevertheless held in the late afternoon when all efforts for the police to remove their blockade failed. It stretched from the foot of the EDSA-Santolan flyover all the way to EDSA-New York.

People’s Hearing focuses on US intervention in Mamasapano debacle

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Witnesses at the “People’s Hearing on Mamasapano” organized by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and held last February 20 at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila recall accounts by residents of Mamasapano, Maguindanao of the presence of United States personnel and war materiel in the botched operations.

In this video, an alternative journalist, a congresswoman, and a university professor establish foreign intervention at what is turning to be the biggest political crisis that hit the Benigno Aquino government. All three were members of the fact-finding mission that interviewed relatives of civilian victims in Mamasapano two weeks after the incident.

ANAKPAWIS: Pahirap na rehimen, dapat ng patalsikin

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Nagprotesta ang Anakpawis laban sa pagtaas ng presyo ng langis, dagdag-singil sa kuryente at nakaambang taas-singil sa tubig ng Maynilad.

Nitong nakaraang linggo, nauna nang nagtaas ng P2.40 sa gasolina at P1.90 sa diesel. Hindi rin nagpahuli ang Meralco na nagtaas ng P.84 kada kwh; at itinulak naman ng Maynilad ang dagdag-singil na P3.33 kada metriko kwadrado.

Nanawagan ang Anakpawis na panahon nang dapat singilin naman ang gobyernong Noynoy Aquino dahil sa patuloy nitong pagpapahirap sa taumbayan.

February 17, 2015

Caraga lumads, peasants: State of region is marked with blood

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February 23, 2015 – At mid-day, the gates of Almont hotel’s inland Resort were deliberately closed as security personnel scamper to control hundreds of placard holding Caraganons lining it. Inside, Sol F. Matugas, Chairperson of the Regional Development Council Delivers his first ever State of the Region Address in front of a delegation of Caraga’s regional line agencies, Local government units and partners.

“If Sol F. Matugas is telling all of us about the state of the region, he should be all accounts put into writing what we have to say” exclaims Franklin Campos, of Lumad group KASALO-Caraga. “Only few government officials have faced us since we went down from our communities and now the RDC is talking about the state of the region without allowing us to give an input on our situation in the rural areas? They should listen and face us before they dare make any grand narrative about the state of the region.“ Campos adds.

Today is the 20th anniversary since former President Fidel Ramos signed RA 7901 in 1995. The act which formally made Caraga into a special administrative region. However, unknown to most, Caraga region first took its shape way back during the Spanish period the colonizers set-up a military garrison to reinforce their invasion of Tandag. Since its inception the words Caraga and Military belonged in the same sentence.

Campos, along with 300 of his companions are part of Tambuli tu Kalinow – Kampuhan sa Butuan. A campaign which mobilized individuals from Caraga regions most militarized communities to directly engage with regional line agencies to demand intervention and swift action. They represent 8 lumad organization under Kasalo-Caraga and 4 organizations under KMP-Caraga. They are calling to “Defend our community! Dismantle the armed para-military of the Butcher EastMinCom!” The group started their week-long camp-out protest cum cultural Caravan since February 18 and have set-up camp at the Libertad Sports complex.

Prior to their picket-rally the Almont Hotel, the group tried to have talks with the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) chairman, Butuan Mayor Amante, but failed to get contact with him as he was “out of town”. Days before, the body has had talks with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples – XIII officer-in-charge Atty. Pinky Grace Pabelic who was absent, NCIP acting regional hearing officer Atty. John E. Luneta, faced the delegation. He was unable to commit to any actions on the issues raised by the representatives of the lumad people, instead assuring them that he will inform NCIP officer-in-charge Pinky Grace Pabalic, who was not in her office, about the issues. Their main agenda was the dire situation that Aquino’s anti-insurgency program “Oplan Bayanihan” brought them.

“Oplan Bayanihan, Aquino’s counter insurgency program” says Franklin “has wreaked havoc in our rural communities because of our firm and organized grassroots actions to resist the incursion of Mining, plantations and energy projects. It has unleashed a mighty war machine that is composed of nine full combat battalions, four of which (2 scout ranger and two special force battalions) are under the Special Operations Command of the Philippine Army augmented by a host of paramilitary groups”

According to Campos, since 2012 under the US-Aquino regime, more or less 10,000 people have been dislocated from their livelihood from not less than 50 communities in 4 provinces in the Caraga region. There has already been 10 evacuations since the previous year of 2014 until the first months of 2015, victimizing 1,165 lumad and peasant families or 5,172 individuals. At present 413 families with 1,652 individuals are still in the evacuation centers in Bunawan, Bayugan and San Luis in Agusan del Sur, while 122 families or 591 individuals that evacuated in Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur since October 2014 had recently been able to return home. They evacuated because of the killings of their leaders, harassments, their communities turned into garrisons and cyclic military operations of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion, 4th Scout Ranger Battalion, 75th and 26th IB PA. Ten (10) lumad and peasant leaders were killed during the AFPs military operations in 2014 until February 10, 2015. Paramilitary groups accompanying the military troops committed cold blooded killings and other crimes against the people. The group of Calpet Egua, Marcos Bocales who call themselves ‘Bagani’ or ‘Magahat’ and the ‘Maggahat’ group of Mario Napungahan are mainly armed by the AFP to commit harassments in the mountains. Included among these groups are Eddie “Komander Bawang” Ampiawan and Benhur Mansulonay’s armed groups turned CAFGU.

Also, Campos adds that 124 leaders of MAPASU, TAGDUMAHAN and KASALO-Caraga; leaders and active members of UMAN, KAMASS of KMP-Caraga have been filed trumped up cases. Forty three (43) of these were cases filed last 2014 and includes lumad leaders Jalandoni Campos, MAPASU chairperson and Genasque Enriquez, Secretary General of KASALO Caraga.

The group has set to engage the regional heads of the Department of interior and Local Government and the Department of Justice before capping their week long camp-out protest with a big mobilization on February 25 in time of the annual celebration of the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

“We hope to have gained some positive gains before we depart for our homes. Until then, we shall maintain our offensive posture.” says Campos. ##

BAYAN MUNA HITS TRIPLE WHAMMY PRICE HIKES ON OIL, POWER, AND WATER

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BAYAN MUNA HITS TRIPLE WHAMMY PRICE HIKES ON OIL, POWER, AND WATER

Group says government policy of deregulation and privatization to blame, calls on Pres. Aquino to step in

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares today hit the triple whammy of price hikes on oil, power and water saying that it is the government policy of deregulation, privatization and liberalization is the root cause of this price hikes.

“Take the case of oil firms, they are so fast to jack up oil prices but are so slow to roll back. Why should there be another big time oil price hike when oil companies have a buffer stock that was purchased when the price was lower? Worse oil prices are decreasing in the international market but it is increasing here,” said Senior Deputy Minority Leader Colmenares.

The progressive solon issued the statement as oil companies is again set to implement a big time oil price hike even as oil prices fell in Asian trading hours last week after the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that global oil prices will recover only partially over the next five years, analysts said.

News reports say that US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery fell 68 cents to $52.18, while Brent crude for March eased 80 cents to $57.54 in morning trade.

“Besides the rollbacks they implemented then was not even right because some industry insiders are saying that it should be P1-2 more. Given this situation and government is also slow in lowering the prices of basic commodities services and transportation so it is the consumers are always at the losing end. This is the reason why the oil industry should be regulated to prevent this type of price manipulation and added burden to consumers,” said Rep. Colmenares.

WHERE IS THE COLLUSION REPORT ON OVERPRICING OF ELECTRICITY?

“Add to this the impending power rate hike and water rate hikes then consumers are again given another burden. As for the impending power rate hike, we have yet to get the full report of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the collusion investigation of generation companies (gencos) which is long overdue but Meralco is again using the same reasoning of simultaneous plant outages as the reason for the increase. Again this would not have happened if government effectively regulates the power industry and if it owns a significant number of power plants to have a say in the market and so that consumers would be held hostage by power players,” he said.

WATER REFUND

“Meanwhile the looming water rate hike of Maynilad and the potential adjustment of Manila Water’s tariffs as a result of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) decision will come on top of another rate hike approved by the MWSS last December.

“Maynilad and Manila Water last month started implementing higher water rates to cover foreign currency differential adjustment (FCDA), which will be reflected on the customers’ bills this month. This would not have happened if the water industry was not privatized by government,” said Rep. Colmenares.

“Also in other businesses, they are the ones who absorb bad business decisions and business risks like the foreign currency differential adjustment (FCDA) and pay their own taxes but these water concessionaires are raking in billions by fooling us. They even pass to consumers losses due to changes in foreign exchange rates. But in this case, the concessionaires borrow from foreign creditors without any qualms knowing that they are insulated from the risk ordinary borrowers take because they’re allowed to pass on their forex losses to their consumers. It is like having their cake and eating it, too. Sa kuryente nga e nagrereklamo tayo sa paniningil sa atin ng systems loss pero dito mismong buwis na nga ng kinita nila ang sinisingil pa sa atin,” “This shows that privatization is wrong and the practice of automatic pass through of forex losses should not be allowed by government”, explained Rep. Colmenares.

“Manila Water and Maynilad must first refund billions of pesos it collected from the public for still unimplemented water projects before it could talk about increase water charges. Among these projects is the P5.4 billion Angat Water Reliability, and the P45.3 billion Laiban dam projects,” added the progressive solon.

“As it is, deregulation, privatization and liberalization have been proven to a bane to consumers and should be reversed. We should act now and Congress should fast track the measures to stop these destructive and lopsided economic measures before it wreaks more havoc on the lives of the Filipino people,” said Rep. Colmenares.

AQUINO CALLED TO STEP IN

“These impending rate increases could be stopped if Pres. Aquino will abandon his privatization and deregulation policies while at the same time intervene and warn these companies of their liabilities should they be involved in price manipulation or unjust rate increases. The fact that the Aquino administration has allowed prices of basic commodities to remain high despite the decreasing oil price only shows its lack of concern for consumers. In the end, the government is the one to blame for persisting in the discredited privatization and deregulation policies which allows these rate increases to the detriment of the public,” ended the Senior Deputy Minority Leader.###

“Hand-washing” groups say of PNoy’s 2nd Mamasapano speech

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Activist groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan trooped to Mendiola earlier tonight to hold a public viewing of President Benigno Aquino’s second national address regarding the Mamasapano debacle that killed dozens last January 25.

US role in Mamasapano exposed

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A protest rally in front of the US embassy in Manila on February 4, 2015 exposed the role of the United States in the deadly covert operations in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The January 25 commando raid and the ensuing 12-hour battle left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troops, 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters and at least seven civilians dead. Among the speakers at the rally are Makabayan Coalition President Satur Ocampo and Amirah Ali Lidasan, Secretary General of the Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA). US forces were seen by witnesses in the operations. Protesters demand justice for the victims, Pres. Aquino’s resignation and the abrogation of US military pacts, notably the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The rally was led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and local affiliates of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).