Describing President Macapagal-Arroyo’s ninth State of the Nation Address (Sona) as “another wizard’s potion concocted to fool the poor,” a militant lawmaker called on the President to instead lay down her exit plan and stop the push for term extension via Charter change.
“Ms Arroyo’s Sona was filled with illusions and statistical magic, as if the country is Hogwarts thinking that the Filipino people are ‘muggles’ often portrayed by Palace wizards as foolish. Up to her last Sona, Ms Arroyo tried to hide the true state of the nation but failed,” says Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano.
Mariano said that “in more than eight years of the Arroyo administration, 7 out of 10 farmers continue to remain landless, while every year, more than four million workers were displaced.”
“Worse, prices of basic commodities and services like rice and fuel more than doubled under the Arroyo regime,” the Anakpawis lawmaker stressed.
“In the face of the people’s hardships,” Mariano said, “political repression, extrajudicial killings, abduction and torture, persists as a major policy against legitimate political dissent.”
Mariano also said that “instead of pushing for Charter change, what the people wants to hear from Ms Arroyo is her exit plan.”
“Ms Arroyo’s political maneuvers, like Charter change and iron fist rule, to perpetuate herself in power will surely face the people’s wrath,” Mariano warned.