To many, the 2010 elections and the stepping down of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration brought much hope for change. Change is exactly what Pres. Benigno Aquino III promised . But as the Aquino administration is about to end, it is hounded by issues both old and new.
For this December 2015, the year ender articles would discuss these issues, as well as what happened to the much-promised change.
The Aquino presidency: All talk, no walk
Benigno Aquino III was elected by a people longing for change, especially after the scandal-ridden administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Macapagal-Arroyo family was linked to so many corruption and bribery scandals that anybody who was to replace her could be deemed an angel. But as fate would have it, Corazon Aquino, the figurehead of the EDSA people power uprising against the Marcos dictatorship, died and this propelled her only son Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, an underperforming senator who was also a former House representative with no major accomplishment to boast of, to the presidency.
But the Filipino people was hopeful that an unlikely president would bring change in Malacañang and address the problems of corruption, injustice, unresolved extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances and filing of trumped up cases against activists and murders of journalists, suppression of dissent, poverty, unemployment and worsening social inequities.
So what happened after five and a half years? (Click here to continue reading)
‘Political dissent is a crime’
According to human rights group Karapatan, 85 percent of political prisoners were slapped with criminal charges, a clear violation of the Hernandez political doctrine, a Supreme Court jurisprudence that prohibits the criminalization of political dissent.
‘Bloodstained ‘daang matuwid’ claims lives of hundreds, including children’
“The regime’s monstrosity, which spares not even children, speaks of the evil tactics of the counterinsurgency program of Aquino, Oplan Bayanihan.”
‘No conviction on extrajudicial killings’
“All attempts at seeking justice are frustrated in every way. Aquino has deepened the roots of impunity.”
Under Aquino, Suara Bangsamoro documented 32 killings of Moro civilians, while at least 180 Moro political detainees remain in detention at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, 80 of whom were cleared of charges in an inquiry by the Department of Justice.
“We should draw a clear line between the truths and the lies, and make the government accountable for its crimes. Aquino presented himself as a leader, but has done nothing, but follow the whims of an imperialist power,” said Jerome Succor Aba, Suara Bangsamoro national spokesperson.
‘Workers’ rights exist only on paper’
When workers try to exercise their rights to hold mass actions and strikes to secure better wages and working conditions, they are labeled or tagged as communist supporters or trouble makers, are brutally dispersed from their picketline, and are harassed with “trumped-up” legal cases.
“The Aquino government does not recognize the rights of the LGBT, let alone respect them.”
In 2015, an OFW saved, another executed
While there are many reasons to celebrate the temporary stay of Mary Jane Veloso’s execution, there are still many reasons to seethe with rage.
2015 | A year of victories for health
“The issue of privatization in health entered national consciousness, and became part of national
Peace nowhere in sight under Aquino
“The militarist approach of the Aquino regime in dealing with the revolutionary movement and in the peace talks is the same as and as bad as Arroyo’s.” – Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria
