People’s Demands on Aquino’s First State of the Nation Address

The cause-oriented groups also pushed for the development of the national economy by promoting local industries and implementing a genuine agrarian reform program that will truly distribute land, including Hacienda Luisita, to the farmers for free. They asked Aquino to scrap the stock distribution option that has barred land reform in his family-owned Luisita. To improve agricultural production and help raise the standard of living of farmers, the progressive groups asked Aquino to support local farmers through low-interest loans especially during post-harvest production.

The groups asked the Aquino government to disregard the neo-liberal policies in the economy including the deregulation, privatization and liberalization of its substantial sectors. They also suggested repealing “anti-people laws such as the Mining Act of 1995, the Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira) and the oil deregulation law.” These laws have been blamed for the destructive mining coupled with dislocation of farmers, and the non-stop rise in prices of electricity and petroleum products.

Promote Human Rights for a Just and Lasting Peace

Under the Arroyo regime, some 1, 205 progressive activists died, 206 went missing, and hundreds became political prisoners charged with common crimes, which they said were fabricated. Karapatan together with other sectors are united in calling for justice for all victims of human rights violations during nine years of the Arroyo government.

They also urged the new Aquino administration to put a stop to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of human rights violations and to immediately release the detained 43 health workers and all other political prisoners.

“Abandon Oplan Bantay Laya and do not implement a similar internal security plan,” Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairwoman of Karapatan, urged Aquino. She added that the Aquino government should implement the recommendation of Prof. Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings.

The human rights defenders also called for the indemnification of victims of human rights violations during martial law and during the Arroyo regime.

The Moro-Christian People’s Alliance, meanwhile, asked the Aquino government to stop the all-out war policy against their people. “We call on president Aquino to end the militarization in Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and to abolish the paramilitary units that cause various human rights violations to the people of Mindanao,” Allan Rabbi of MCPA said. She asked for the release of the victims of crackdown in 2001 in Mindanao, saying that up to now innocent Muslims are in prison. She said there is a pressing need too to rehabilitate the communities that were destroyed in the course of the government’s all-out war in Mindanao.

The groups challenged Aquino to resume the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) without pre-conditions, same goes for the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

(Photo by Anne Marxze D. Umil/ bulatlat.com)

They also dared the Aquino administration to implement the previously signed agreements with the NDFP, for instance the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and reconvene the Joint Monitoring Committee as well as implement the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). From there, they asked Aquino to proceed to the next agenda of the peace negotiations, the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER).

“We reiterate our call for a just and lasting peace. The Aquino government should address the root causes of armed conflict and resume peace talks,” said Sr. Mau Catabyan of Ecumenical Voice.

National Sovereignty and Protection of the Environment

Given the “total sell-out of the country’s patrimony under the Arroyo regime,” the progressive groups called for the review and abrogation of bilateral agreements signed by the previous administrations such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership (JPEPA). According to Reyes, it is now a big challenge for Aquino to review or abrogate these bilateral deals which he himself as a senator had rejected. Last year, the Senate also unanimously signed a resolution seeking to review or abrogate VFA.

“We call on the Aquino government to investigate the mysterious deaths of Gregan Cardeno and Capt. Javier Ignacio, who were probably killed by American soldiers deployed in Mindanao,” Reyes added.

Cardeno died allegedly due to suicide. His body was found inside Camp Ranao of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Marawi City. About two months later, Ignacio, a police and family friend who helped Cardeno get the job and later helped his relatives with the case, was himself gunned down.

To protect the environment, the progressive groups sought the cancellation of the Bio-fuels Act of 2007 and Mining Revitalization Program. They pressed the Aquino government to honor local government laws against large-scale mining like those in Rapu-Rapu in Albay and Oceana Golds in Nueva Ecija. “These projects greatly affect the environment as well as the people who live within the vicinity,” said Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (PNE) national coordinator Clemente Bautista, Jr.