Miiltant plan massive SONA protest in QC on July 23

The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on Thursday announced that it has secured a permit from the Quezon City Hall for a protest action coinciding with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address.
 
The permit covers the July 22 vigil of Bayan member organizations in front of Ever Commonwealth and the July 23 rally at the same place. Around 10-15,000 participants are expected at the rally on Monday. The protests will focus on issues such as the newly implemented anti-terror law, continuing extrajudicial killings and poverty.
 
“Last year, Arroyo gave life to the theory of command responsibility when she openly praised the butcher Gen. Jovito Palparan in her SONA. We wonder which general or butcher she will praise this year. She better be careful whom she praises this time because the world knows what command responsibility means,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
 
“Condemning the killings while praising butcher generals will not convince anyone that the Arroyo government is intent on stopping killings. The only announcement we are looking forward to at Arroyo’s SONA is a direct order from the commander-in-chief to all military units to stop the killings,” Reyes said.
 
Later in the week, Bayan is expected to unveil details of this year’s massive effigy for the SONA rally. Since Arroyo took power in 2001, Bayan and the artist group UgatLahi have produced giant effigies potraying the Arroyo government and the burning issues of the day. Previously, the giant effigies would be burned along Commonwealth Avenue as one of the protest highlights.
 
On July 22, delegates from Southern Tagalog are expected to arrive in Metro Manila and stage a vigil on the eve of the SONA. On July 23, Bayan and its member orgs will march along Commonwealth Avenue from Tandang Sora to Ever Commonwealth for the main program of the protest.
 
Members of the political Opposition as well as other anti-Arroyo personalities have been invited to attend and speak at the SONA protest.
 
“The legacy of the Arroyo regime includes widspread human rights violations, unprecedented unemployment and two counts of unresolved electoral fraud. The question on everyone’s mind is if Arroyo plans to continue these so-called achievements even beyond 2010,” Reyes said.