SONA ng Mamamayan 2011

Montreal, Canada

 

July 25, 2011

 

VIDEO: State of the Migrants Address Under Aquino

 

 

Manila Part 1   Manila Part 2   Manila Part 3   Manila Part 4   Manila Part 5

 

Southern Tagalog     Visayas     Cagayan de Oro    Davao     Zamboanga   

 

Canada     USA


 

 

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Photos courtesy of BAYAN - Canada
           
     
     
     

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Press Statement
BAYAN CANADA
June 24, 2011

 

The illusion of Aquino's "Tuwid na Daan"


After one year in office, President Benigno Aquino III has not improved the lives of the Filipino people. His promise of “Tuwid na Daan” (straight path) is nothing but the crooked and edgy path for the Filipino people to tread on. His campaign promises during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) have become illusions for the majority of the people.
 

Misguided by the illusion of popularity, the Aquino administration refuses to address the chronic problems of the country. These are the rampant unemployment and poverty, inadequate social services, continuing human rights violations committed with impunity, landlessness, continuing rise in the prices of basic commodities, uncontrollable prices of gasoline and petroleum products, and destruction of the environment.
 

These problems, further encouraged by the government’s labour export policy, continue to drive many Filipinos to leave the country to work abroad. At least 4000 men and women leave the airports everyday to work overseas; there are 10 million Filipinos working in 196 countries and territories.
If President Aquino is sincere in keeping his promises, he needs to concretely act on these. In the socio-economic front, instead of taking the neoliberal economic path, he and his economic managers must take the path to national industrialization and genuine land reform. Instead of dole-outs and short-term socio-economic programs like “Pantawid Pasada” (gas subsidy to drivers) and conditional cash transfer (CCT), the Aquino administration must undertake long-term socio-economic measures that will bring lasting, not temporary, relief to the people’s suffering. The Aquino administration needs to look beyond economic rhetoric and failed policies of the past regimes.
 

Like his predecessor the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, President “Noynoy” Aquino has opened the country to foreign capital and investments. President Aquino has aggressively attracted foreign investors and has placed little or no restrictions to their operations. In particular, we refer to Canadian mining companies that operate in the Philippines which have not complied with genuine, free, prior and informed consent from the indigenous peoples and which have put profits before environmental destruction and displacement of peasant and indigenous communities.
 

Fighting corruption is empty rhetoric when President Noynoy Aquino has shown no urgency in prosecuting Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her cohorts for their graft and corruption, as well as the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of those who advocate for social change. Declaring that the Filipino People is the President’s “Boss” carries no weight when the same President also wages an all out war against the people with the US-inspired state counterinsurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan. President “Noynoy” Aquino cannot profess to be for peace until he orders the general, unconditional and omnibus amnesty of all political prisoners.
 

The first year of President Aquino has therefore been found wanting. The state of the nation, the state of the people has only gone from bad to worse.
-30-
July 25, 2011

 
     
     
           
     
     
           
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April 25, 2011
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
 

Struggle for Peace: the highest common denominator


What do Easter, Cordillera Day and the anniversary of National Democratic Front of the Philippines have in common? Well they fell on the same day this year, and for Montreal Filipino community organizers and their friends it was enough for celebrations. So on April 24, 2011, indigenous people originally from the Philippine Cordillera region, the Philippine Independent Church in Montreal (PIC), Filipino migrant workers and community activists gathered for an event under the theme of “Prospects for Peace in the Philippines”. The day’s celebration was organized jointly by Bayan Canada, Migrante Quebec and the Centre for Philippine Cocnerns.
The Cordillera Organizing Committee, a member of the Migrante alliance also added the theme, ”Live out our glorious history of struggle; fight for land, life & honour” to highlight their continuing struggle to defend their ancestral domain. Significant since the day marks the 27thanniversary of Cordillera Day in the Philippines. It is a day to remember the martyrs of the struggle to stop development aggression against the indigenous people of the Cordillera during the Marcos Dictatorship.

While others also came for spiritual reflection and celebration of Easter, Fr. Atemio Calaycay of the PIC reminded people in his sermon that “peace” is holistic. As he put it, “the absence of war does not necessarily equate peace.” Fr. Art wanted to remind people that poverty hunger and social injustices still exist to prevent genuine peace and democracy from taking root in the Philippines.
This was the theme also taken up by guest speakers via video message and Skype. While Dr. Chandu Claver of Bayan Canada drove home the theme for the Cordillera Day celebrations, he also spoke about the ongoing political killings and the need of all Filipinos, including those abroad, to learn from the struggles of the Cordillera People. “We must unite with each other and engage in determined struggle,” says Dr. Chandu, “together we can dare to win.”

Meanwhile, Coni Ledesma and Luis Jalandoni of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) spoke via Skype. The presentation reminded people that there is a growing revolutionary movement in the Philippines challenging the corrupt and repressive system dominating Philippine society today. Like in many parts of the world currently, more and more people are turning to revolution to change their society for the better. Also important was the determination of the NDFP to fight for genuine peace even across the negotiation table from the Philippine government despite the ploys of the latter to subdue the resistance without any commitment or action to real changes in society. Both the NDFP speakers explained that peace must be based on real justice, like the end to human rights violations, securing people’s health, ending foreign intervention in the country, genuine land reform and developing and nationalizing industry to provide meaningful livelihood to the people.

Odaya, a Native American drumming and singing group who opened the celebrations introduced one of their songs as a song of renewal or rebirth. Perhaps here lies the more appropriate answer to the question above.
Joey Calugay
BAYAN Canada
April 27, 2011
     
           
     
     
           
 

 

 

VIDEO:

 

State of the Migrants Address Under Aquino

Length: ‎9:59

 

  
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