Bayan-Negros set SONA protest actions today
BACOLOD CITY - The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) - Negros will stage a protest rally today in time of President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA).
"There will be a lot of reasons to protest in today's SONA of Mrs. Arroyo. At the rate the economic situation is fast deteriorating, with the people's backs against the wall, there will surely be thousands on the streets today. Arroyo has given the people no other recourse but to air their demands through massive demonstrations. Her economic policies are already killing us slowly," said Bayan-Negros secretary general Felipe Levy Gelle Jr.
"The economic crisis will be a crucial theme of the SONA protests, given the weekly oil price increases and the uproar over the oppressive Value Added Tax on oil and power. The real SONA would be that of poverty, hunger and injustice," Gelle said.
"In no time during the past eight SONA's has the economic crisis been this severe. It would be foolish of Arroyo to showcase so-called economic growth and development gains. Those statistics are meaningless to millions of poor Filipinos. Showcasing economic growth would create an intense backlash," the Bayan leader said.
"We expect the SONA to be a festival of lies and deceit. The much vaunted government subsidies are short-term remedies to quell unrest, not really to help the poor. The Arroyo government has rejected medium to long-term relief measures like the removal of the VAT on oil and power," Gelle said.
Bayan-Negros will burn an effigy of GMA as she begins her speech. The effigy is an octopus whose tentacles representing the RVAT, Oil price hikes, power rate hikes, water rate hikes and other tax impositions, siphoning sweat and blood of the people.
Allied organizations of Bayan will have also their portrayal of the worsening economic conditions of the people under GMA.