Mr. Aquino, some terms you may have failed to know the meaning of...
by
Ayie Montalban on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 11:24am
This is what our people put us in
power for. This is what the world expects of us as leaders—to be
exemplars of what it is to be compassionate human beings, and
vanguards of hope for our common humanity.
For so many times in our history,
my people have shown that, united, nothing is impossible. We called it
People Power. It is my earnest hope—and in the greatest interest of
humanity—that we harness the energies of dialogue, solidarity, and
communal responsibility, so that a global People Power toward
equitable progress may be achieved.
--Noynoy Aquino, before the 65th
General Assembly of the United Nations
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38103668/President-Noynoy-Aquino-Speech-Before-65th-General-Assembly-of-the-United-Nations
Mr. Aquino, you have time and again amazed me, with the stench of your
words. May I remind you of certain words, you have used, but may have
failed to fully understand its implication?
For one, what for you, Mr. Aquino, is common humanity?
Isn't it, that irrespective of gender, ethinicity, religion and creed,
colour, physical and mental abilities, sexual preference, all human beings
share a common humanity and irrepressible dignity? And isn't it, that the
recognition of inherent dignity of each human being would be of little
meaning if each person's right to food, shelter, clothing, basic health
care, education, work and justice is not equally and effectively
recognised?
Now, Mr. Aquino, how have you been a vanguard and hope for common
humanity, in light of the Hacienda Luisita issue?
Are the people of the Hacienda, human beings and therefore have the
inherent dignity of human persons and share equal and inalienable rights
as members of the human family? Isn't it, that respect for of such rights
is the foundation of freedom, justice, conflict resolution in the world?
Isn't it unjust and immoral, that a vast track of land, the size of two
major cities in the metropolis (Makati and Manila combined) be owned by
just one family, while the strong 6,000 and more farmer-beneficiaries have
no right to the same piece of land they have toiled and tilled, with sweat
and blood? That these same strong 6,000 and more farmer beneficiaries are
being kept as poor as they can be for further exploitation, in your family
corporation's unjust labor deeds and usurpation?
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Where is common humanity in that, Mr. Aquino? And you, a vanguard, is an
equally stench-filled repungent statement, Sir.
Secondly, Mr. Aquino, how do you define compassion?
To give financial assistance that is but a mere pittance, to the farmers
who have sowed the billions your azucarera have reaped? Ah, Compassion it
is, Mr. Aquino. Compassion it is, to give one peso as a gift of gratitude
for the twenty long years of service. Commendable compassion, Mr. Aquino.
If you, and your family, be exemplars of what it is to be a
compassionate human being, I defer to wonder anymore its implications, for
fear of nightmares.
And lastly, the nerve you got, Mr. Aquino! It pales down the nerve that
Hitler had.
Calling for a global people power that would usher us towards the
achievement of equitable progress is a cute touch of humor. Equitable
progress, is progress shared by one and all. Grounded in equality,
equitable progress, takes into consideration an entire society's progress
towards genuine fundamental social change. The very essence of people
power is to effect such change. People power is apt only for toppling a
fascist, anti-people government. People power is for pushing for genuine
agrarian reform. People power is for your Hacienda to be finally
distributed to its farmer-beneficiaries.
And if may quote:
“The people power we know is the democratic exercise of the people to call
for fundamental change and fight oppression and exploitation, not the
fascist use of government forces to massacre those who protest and exploit
farmers to keep them impoverished. Aquino is an advocate of poverty of
peasants, he has no moral right to call for a people power against
poverty,” Axel Pinpin, KASAMA – TK Secretary-General said.
“The very struggle of Hacienda Luisita farmers are the model of people
power, converting sugarlands into farms of food crops such as rice,
vegetables and fruits. Their organized and united effort such as the
‘bungkalan’ (cultivation) is the concretization of the spirit of people
power, poor Filipinos finally benefiting from their struggle, not the
high-faluting macro-economic babble Aquino’s apologists are chattering
about,” he added.
Nice try, at lying Mr. Aquino. The People now knew better. The luster of
your yellow coat is now revealing its stains. Hacienda Luisita will never
be history. No sugar-coating will ever erased our memory.
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IBON Media Release / 23 September 2010
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City
Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org
| http://www.ibon.org
AQUINO SIGNING OF MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT PAVES WAY FOR MORE
PROBLEMATIC POLICIES
Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino is set to witness the signing of the
Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) during his US visit, but research group
IBON warns that the agreement is biased against national interest and
gives way for more erroneous policies that have eroded the local economy.
The MCA, a US$434-million compact grant agreement of the US government’s
Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), requires the Philippines to meet certain
indicators such as open trade, economic freedom, good governance,
adherence to human rights, etc. to continue receiving the aid. To qualify
for support, recipient countries are required to implement neoliberal
economic and political policies approved by the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF), and neoconservative US think-tanks
Heritage Foundation and Freedom House.
According to IBON, the requirements to meet the indicators for trade
policy, inflation and fiscal policy are exactly the same policy measures
contained in the discredited World Bank structural adjustment programs and
IMF stabilization programs of past decades. They seek to completely open
up the economy to foreign capital at the expense of real domestic
development, and to promote fiscal austerity to be able to keep repaying
debt. These policies are designed to benefit mainly US commercial and
strategic interests and not development or poverty reduction in the
country. Moreover, the MCC indicators are inconsistent with real asset and
wealth redistribution in the domestic economy.
The requirements for the indicator on “regulatory quality” for instance
are about further shrinking the capacity of government to intervene in the
economy in the greater social interest. This is a rehash of the old 1980s
‘minimalist state’ approach that the recent global financial crisis has
exposed as grossly inadequate in terms of national development. Even the
indicators on anti-corruption, rule of law and government effectiveness
are more concerned about creating a stable and consistent business
environment for US firms to operate and profit than on improving the
people’s welfare.
The indicators on political rights and civil liberties also appear little
considered with the real state of human rights in the country. Meanwhile,
the supposed poverty alleviation projects (US120-million for the Kalahi
CIDSS) has been proven by experience to momentarily disguise poverty
causes and divert from the need for basic structural economic reforms.
IBON adds that MCC is also a tacit endorsement of the failed Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which enshrines ‘just compensation’ rather
than ‘free distribution of land to the tiller’ as the cornerstone of
agrarian reform. This is likely one of the measures for the indicator on
land rights.
IBON stresses that the MCC is about promoting the US’s preferred version
of neoliberal free market democracies– democratic in form but severely
undemocratic in their outcomes. As clearly shown in how the last decade of
the most rapid economic growth in the country has been accompanied by
rising poverty, these policies have excluded the majority of Filipinos
from the benefits of growth. (end)
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution
established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications,
information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.
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IBON Media Release / 20 September 2010
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City
Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org
| http://www.ibon.org
WILL RP GAIN FROM AQUINO U.S. VISIT? TRIP MAY CAUSE MORE HARM THAN
GOOD, SAYS GROUP
Research group IBON today warned that the much-hyped US visit of Pres.
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino may result in more harm than good, as the group
expressed serious concern that his first official foreign trip may further
deepen the implementation of economic policies long discredited for
undermining national development, destroying local industries and jobs,
and marginalizing the poor.
The group issued the statement as President Aquino leaves for the US today
for a week-long visit to attend the United Nations (UN) General Assembly
in New York, meet with US investors for his administration’s
public-private partnership (PPP) projects, and witness the formal signing
of a US$434-million compact grant agreement under the US government’s
Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
IBON said that the financial assistance from the MCA will put additional
pressure on the Philippines to further open up its economy to more
imported commodities and foreign capital. It added that MCA is a highly
conditional aid, noting that the MCA requires the Philippines to maintain
so-called economic freedom to continue receiving the aid. Other MCA
requirements include fighting corruption, public investment on education
and health care, etc.
Economic freedom means business freedom in reality, as it spells the least
possible government intervention in the operation of businesses that
entails dismantling barriers to the free flow of trade and investment
through liberalization; elimination of government regulatory functions
through deregulation; and dismantling of state monopoly over certain
economic activities through privatization. IBON noted that conservative US
think-tank and staunch advocate of free market and limited government, the
Heritage Foundation, designed the index used to measure a country’s
so-called economic freedom to become eligible for MCA funding.
The US has repeatedly raised the issue of barriers to US trade and
investment in the Philippines through the annual report of the US Trade
Representative (USTR), among others. In its 2010 report, the USTR
reiterated its long-standing position that certain provisions of the 1987
Constitution represent barriers to US trade and investment such as the
constitutional ban on foreign ownership of land as well as foreign equity
limits on utilities, telecommunication, mass media, etc.
IBON said the MCA gives the US more leverage to pressure the bankrupt
Philippine government to address these issues. It also added that with
renewed commitments from both countries to negotiate a bilateral free
trade deal, the MCA funding could be used to compel the Philippines to
agree to a one-sided agreement.
Meanwhile, IBON said that Aquino’s plan to step up his privatization
efforts by aggressively inviting US investors to participate in his PPP
campaign in his US visit ignores almost three decades of experience with
privatized utilities and infrastructure. The country’s experience with the
privatization of the power and water sector as well as toll roads, for
example, has only resulted in exorbitant user fees while deepening the
government’s fiscal woes.
The group urged the Aquino administration to seriously rethink its
economic policies if it sincerely wants to bring about change that will
benefit the country. Otherwise, the President’s visit to the US will do
more harm than good and will result in more of the same problems that the
economy has faced for decades. (end)
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution
established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications,
information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues. |
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Cheap labor, cheap lives on sale in
Aquino’s US trip
While the Aquino government proudly proclaims that the president’s first
trip to the US will cost less than his predecessor’s overseas trips, we
maintain that its effects will cost so much for the Filipino workers and
people. It is clear from Noynoy’s statements, entourage, and itinerary
that he will be selling cheap Filipino labor and cheap Filipino lives to
US corporations and in this trip.
Claiming that the trip will create more jobs in the country, Noynoy said
that he will “try to make the country even more attractive” to foreign
investors. Previous governments have also done this, yet we have always
ended up with the same results: chronic unemployment, low wages,
contractual work, and violations of trade-union rights. A change in the
country’s plight lies right here in the country, not abroad – in junking
long-standing neoliberal policies that favor foreign and big local
corporations.
It is clear from the Aquino government’s mendicant attitude towards the US
that Noynoy’s trip will affirm, and even expand, the highly-unequal
Visiting Forces Agreement. While the cost of Noynoy’s short trip to the US
may be cheap – and it should be cheaper, since most of the businessmen and
politicians in his entourage can pay for their trips, anyway – the cost of
the permanent stay of US troops in the country has been running sky-high
for the Filipino people. Our Constitution, sovereignty and laws have been
trampled upon and our people’s safety and rights have been violated by the
VFA.
Noynoy’s US trip may have been scheduled by the government in the
aftermath of its disastrous handling of the bloody August 23 hostage
crisis, in an effort to recoup lost “political capital.” The Aquino
government’s continuing subservience to the US, however, will erode its
“political capital” quickly and more dramatically in the long run than any
hostage crisis or any such crisis. A government that treats its labor and
people cheap will surely and in no time lose much-valued “political
capital” among the Filipino workers and people. #
Reference: Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU Chairperson, 0908-163-6597
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Noynoy using Gloria’s magic trick to cover
up widespread unemployment – KMU
In his first press conferences as chief executive, President Benigno
“Noynoy” Aquino III not only vowed to be different from former President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he also vowed to study the data on the state of
the nation, which his predecessor distorted. Three months after, the
National Statistics Office under his leadership released the most recent
employment data. But such data were arrived at using the same old magic
trick that Gloria did – which is to exclude from those who are considered
“unemployed” people who have been discouraged from finding work precisely
because of the chronic lack of job opportunities in the country.
When the resolution was first used in April 2005, the country’s
unemployment rate dropped from more than 12% to just above 8%. The
unemployment rate was reduced not because the Arroyo regime offered ample
employment opportunities but because it manipulated employment data. This
is what the present government is continuing – which shows that, just like
Arroyo, Aquino is more concerned with putting up a glowing, and false,
picture of the situation of the Filipino workers, than actually facing the
facts and addressing the causes of the widespread lack of jobs and
employment in the country.
The NSO even brags about their method of determining who is considered
employed. Those who work, no matter what kind of work it is, for at least
one hour a week are already considered employed by the government.
The Aquino government, very much like his predecessor, also banks on the
informal economy to prop up employment figures. Even the “GRO” profession
is officially recognized as employment.
But we do not need more news and boastings on employment figures, we need
real, stable, and decent jobs. We have already exhausted all sorts of ways
to earn a living, done all possible sidelines, and entered into all kinds
of hardships, precisely because of the gross lack of jobs. And with the
current administration’s very distorted view on providing jobs to its
people, we know that real change will not come from it. # |
