(After two leaders were killed in a demolition in Caloocan City) Urban poor to hold 'funeral march,' to bury any chance that poor will get better under Aquino

NEWS RELEASE I July 25, 2011

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—Militant urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) will lead thousands of urban poor tomorrow as they march from Litex Road in Commonwealth to Batasang Pambansa, despite the LGU's ban of demonstrators near where President Benigno Aquino III will hold his Second State of the Nation Address.

Dressed in black shirts, urban poor demonstrators will march behind a life-size yellow and black coffin with Aquino's name on its marker, to symbolize the death of his promise to address the generation-long problem of poverty among Filipinos. The urban poor group also address the government to end impunity against the urban poor after two more barricade leaders were shot by private guards while defending their homes and lands.

Aquino's first year in office is enough to judge that he can and will never solve the problem of poverty inflicting millions of Filipino families, Carlito Badion, Kadamay national vice chairperson said. "On Aquino's second SONA, we will bury all his promises of change, and any chance that the poor will get better under his leadership”, Badion added.

The militant group described the expansion of Cash Conditional Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries to millions of poor Filipino families only opens to more corruption of its billion-peso-fund. CCT, the flagship of the administration's poverty alleviation program is indeed ineffectual and will never succeed in its aim to eradicate if not lessen poverty, according to the group. The administration remain silent on issues essential to poverty eradication such genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization free from the influence of neoliberal policies.

As long as the issue of argarian reform remained unaddressed by the Aquino administration, more Filipino families will go hungry in the countryside, Badion said.

Millions of families will flock to urban centers with the blind hope of escaping poverty, only to find out the situation for the poor is worse in the cities, Badion said on urban migration.

Aquino's Public-Private Partnership, the economic program he announced on his first SONA, has even made the situation worse to hundreds of thousands of urban poor in the cities who now face left-and-right threats of eviction from their communities and source of livelihood in favor of big businesses, the group said.

In May, Aquino announced his grandiose plan to relocate the half-a-million urban poor families of Metro Manila to relocation sites that lack livelihood opportunities. It only speaks that Aquino has nothing to offer the urban poor but demolition and more dire conditions in the years to come.

"On his second SONA, we expect nothing but a continuation and more of Aquino's poor policies," the group said.

These policies should be buried to the grave together with his false promises of change, according to the group.

Reference: Carlito Badion, KADAMAY National Vice Chairperson (09393873736)