BAYAN stages 'jog for a cause'

Members of the militant group BAYAN and some University of the Philippines students in Diliman, Quezon City Sunday staged a "jog for a cause" inside the UP campus, urging the studentry to join the mass action in Mendiola, Manila on Monday, February 25.

Dubbed as "Jog for Truth, Justice and Accountability", the protesters called on UP students to troop to the streets and join them on Monday for the celebration of the 22nd anniversary of the EDSA People Power 1.

While jogging, the rallyists carried with them placards with phrases "The Arroyos are stealing your money" and "Lords of the Malacañang Mafia."

Arnold Padilla, BAYAN public information officer, said there will be series of protest actions to exercise their right to call for a government that will not steal from the coffers of the nation and will not lie.

Padilla said the mass actions are part of the communal action called by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

President Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, has been dragged into the scrapped national broadband network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp. by Senate witness Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr.

Ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. also implicated the First Gentleman and his son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, in the smuggling activities in the country.

BAYAN and other cause-oriented groups are set to stage rallies on Monday asking President Arroyo to step down for the various allegations of anomalies in her government.