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“While BS Aquino is harping on his false achievements, it is at the same time whipping its stick on the people who are expressing discontent amid poverty, corruption, unemployment and injustices.” – Cristina Palabay, Karapatan
“Please bring my husband’s remains home. I want him home.” – Maribelle Esparez whose husband Antonio was beheaded in Libya
SONA ng Bayan did not only serve as a venue for various sectors to air their grievances toward the Aquino administration but also an opportunity for artists to showcase their talents for a cause.
By DEE AYROSO Bulatlat.com After the coverage of the People’s SONA on July 28, other Bulatlat staff writers and I were crossing a catwalk over Commonwealth avenue when, on the Philcoa-bound side, we saw at least a truckload of armed men in fatigue uniform,...
People's organizations in Manila, Bicol region, Bacolod City and Davao City hold protest actions during President Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address (SONA), July 28. Photos by Dee Ayroso | Fred Dabu | Anne Ednalyn Dela Cruz | Loi Manalansan | Ronalyn...
Dr. Ma. Luisa Garcia, 46, and Rosita Labarez, 57, president and vice-president of the Controlled Economic Zone Federation, Inc. (Cezfed), were leading residents of Barangay Holy Spirit to protest the impending bidding of the 13-hectare residential area, in front of the Sandiganbayan, when they were arrested.
“Aquino needs only to look at his own backyard, at the farmers of Hacienda Luisita, to know that things have not changed.” – Renato Reyes, Bayan
Related story | ‘Aquino poised to institutionalize DAP’ -- groups
“The president is overtly asking Congress to legislate his version of the DAP story, in effect urging the Legislature to join forces with the Executive Branch in defying the third branch of government.” – Kabataan Partylist Rep. Terry Ridon
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com The annual state of the nation address is a must read for all citizens who are eager to know the president’s self-rated accomplishment report and priority programs. It is also relevant for what it fails to mention or...
Sona ng Bayan participants marched carrying colorful protest emblems: headgears with calls to jail corrupt politicians, including President Aquino, T-shirts with angry and witty messages against corruption, streamers and banners of various sizes and colors and materials, and partial and full effigies mostly of President Benigno Aquino III.
“Why are they depriving people of their lands?” – Mayeth Corpuz, an Agta, secretary general of the Samahan ng mga Katutubo sa Sierra Madre (SKSM)
President Aquino’ seven deadly sins, according to the Promotion of Church People’s Response, are widespread poverty, rising unemployment, sham land reform, increase in prices of staple goods and services, unabated killings and human rights violations, corruption and the government's continued subservience to US interests through the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
Related stories | Indigenous peoples join call for Aquino ouster at the People’s SONA | SONAng Bayan: coloful and festive, critical and fiery
BLOOD RUSH By SARAH RAYMUNDO Bulatlat.com Where autocrats rule, they call on the living. How do contemporary forms of subjugation operate? For over two decades, the (Focauldian) critique of biopolitics has gained currency in explaining modern forms of subjugation....
“Aquino has opened the country’s economy for the benefit of big foreign businesses. He would even give them tax incentives. But we, Filipinos, are not getting the same. What would happen to us?”
While the president and his people in Malacañang are harried with making reports, claims and new promises to present on President Noynoy Aquino’s 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA) tomorrow, various groups are just as frenzied preparing for the big protest “SONA ng Bayan”.
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