Militant groups, students protest vs PNoy’s SONA

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – An estimated 3,000 people from various sectors, almost half of them students, yesterday staged a protest rally in this city against the 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Aquino III delivered at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

Over a thousand students, from the West Visayas State University, Central Philippines University, Western Visayas College of Science and Technology and the University of the Philippines-Visayas (Miag-ao campus), participated in the rally that went on without any permit from either the city or provincial governments.

The students raised the issue of commercialization of education, of which the education budget for their respective schools were slashed during the Aquino administration, and was never addressed during the SONA.

Reylan Vergara, spokesperson of Bayan-Panay, said other protesting groups, which gathered at five starting points, were members of Tumandok and Pamanggas tribes, Gabriela, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Courage, Panay Alliance-Karapatan, Piston, Bayan-Panay and the church.

The protesters marched around the city in the afternoon and conducted a program at Casa Plaza, near the Capitol, where they burned an effigy of Pnoy, and speakers took turns in assailing the programs of the Aquino administration.

Vergara said they raised the issue of public-private partnership of Aquino, which they said was anti-poor, citing the terminal built in the city where the contractor gets 99 percent share and the city government getting only the measly remainder. They also assailed, among others, the Jalaur mega-dam project that was also anti-poor. (FREEMAN)