Urban poor youth hold pre-SONA concert, assess Aquino’s first year in office

NEWS RELEASE I July 23, 2011

AGHAM ROAD, QC—Members of a Metro Manila youth alliance, AKLAS-Kapatiran who led the defense of Sitio San Roque on September last year gather tonight in a concert of unity and action to assess Aquino’s performance on his first year in office.

The urban poor youth improvise an-eight-wheeler truck as stage and close a section of the Agham Road, like what they did to EDSA on September 23rd last year when San Roque in North Triangle faced violent demolition for the implementation of Quezon City-Central Business District.

The youth concert also aim to expose the gross human right violation of the current administration inflicted to not less than 35,000 urban settlers, including youth and children, who faced violent demolition and eviction from their communities in Metro Manila alone on Aquino's first year in office.

“We aim at showing that PNoy has done nothing on his frist year as president but bringing more pains and calvary to the Filipino youth especially those from the urban poor sector, said John Dick Austria, chairperson of Anakbayan San Roque-Kadamay, a youth mass organization under AKLAS-KApatiran..

“Aquino’s Public-Private Partnership program, his economic framework, only brings privatization and abandonment of the basic services to the private sector. There is no doubt, on his first year in office , more youth could not go to school, more urban poor communities faced threats of demolition, and more Filipinos went hungry and poor,” Austria continues.

The youth concert is a pre-SONA activity of AKLAS-Kapatiran that gears for a big mobilization on Aquino’s Second State of the Nation Address, for another strong defense of the community against another threat of demolition.

Reference: John Dick Austria, AKLAS Spokesperson, 09291117470