The relocation site for urban poor families living along Road 10, North Harbor is right in the middle of a rice field. The houses are poorly constructed with no electricity, water supply; and there are no livelihood opportunities.
Against the 156 processed Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles, of which only 37 were registered, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples issued a total of 320 certifications allowing mining operations.
For the first time, the Aquino administration, which rode on the people’s disgust over the scandalous corruption under the previous Arroyo government to propel Benigno Aquino III – who was never remarkable during his stint in Congress – to Malacañang, is facing the people’s wrath over, of all things, corruption and the pork barrel system. This is the biggest challenge that the Aquino government, which claims it is trekking the daang matuwid, is facing. The broadness of the protest activity today is strikingly similar to that of Edsa 1, in which, ironically, his mother the late president Corazon Aquino was the icon of. Luneta, where the protest activity would be held today August 26, was also the site of Corazon Aquino’s Tagumpay ng Bayan (People’s Victory Rally) on February 16, 1986, where she launched a civil disobedience campaign to force the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to vacate Malacañang.
“Basically, the Palace only removed PDAF in name, but the money’s still there. Worse, it’s now under the president’s full discretion.” – Kabataan Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon
“Aquino remains obstinate on his own lump sum appropriations, which are far greater than the legislative pork barrel. “
“Why do the military insist that the reasons we are so determined to stop the foreign mining companies are the NPAs, who are supposedly pushing us to do so? Don’t we, lowly people, also have the right to unite to protect our lands?”
“The P10-billion (US$ 228 m) pork barrel re-channeled to fake NGOs should have been used instead for an P8.3-billion restoration project for our country’s mangrove forest cover and almost four year’s worth of community-based disaster preparedness and response programs costing at least P2 billion.” – Kalikasan-PNE
“They keep saying that it is just there. And that it could be returned to the Development Bank of the Philippines. Why would they return it there and not to the Land Bank of the Philippines? And even if they return it, they still have accountabilities that they need to face.” – National Museum employee
“They wanted the capitalists to come in to solve poverty, but experiences in other mining areas showed that Lumads were displaced instead when the capitalists took over.”
Read 2nd part: Surviving Pablo, the Manobos’ story
Read 3rd and last part: Beyond military abuses: wresting control from Agusanon Manobos
“When we say pork barrel system, we’re not just calling for the abolition of the PDAF, but the whole system of discretionary spending. This includes funds under the un-programmed funds, the special purposes fund, the presidential social fund, and other lump sum accounts that are under the Executive’s direct discretion.” – Kabataan Party Rep. Terry Ridon
“Once again, the government will provide the infrastructure for the benefit of big guns in the coconut industry at the expense of small coconut farmers. It is totally revolting that P305 million of small coconut farmers money will be spent for the so-called agro-industrial estate project that will only benefit local and foreign agri-businesses.” – Willy Marbella, KMP