'Aquino fears urban upheaval to escalate'--Kadamay

PRESS RELEASE (08 DEC 2011)
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
REFERENCE: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national sec-gen (09213927457)

MANILA, Philippines—After the brutal arrest of some student leaders, and the dispersal of the campers since yesterday, urban poor center Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) continues to call on every urban poor in the nation’s capital to support the students-led Mendiola camp out against crisis and poverty inspired by the international 'Occupy' movement against corporate greed.

“The brutal dispersal only means the Aquino adminstration’s fear that a similar camp-out could spark an urban upheaval that has dethroned leaders in other countries abroad. The global financial crisis has long taken its toll among the toiling masses of the world, inevitably leading to a deep disgust to the current system that is dominated by the corporate capitalists,” Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general says.

“Such fear is not baseless as the Aquino administration cannot deny its puppetry to the foreign and local capitalists, acting as instruments to maintain the status quo. It has no to right to use force to pacify the upheaval of its citizens,” Arellano explains.

According to Kadamay, “yesterday’s brutal dispersal of the students and other campers only shows the fascist hands of the Aquino administration.”

“After Karapatan declares that the Aquino administration is no different from the previous administration based on the number of human right violations committed against its people as impunity never halts, there is no reason for the campers to leave their posts,” says Arellano.

She adds that while the chronic poverty persists to afflict some 30 million urban poor nationwide, there will be no other way but for the millions of urban poor to join hands with other sectors of the society to bring down the system that oppresses them.

“It is a real solution to crisis and poverty, biased only for the poor and the majority,” Arellano says. “It aims to enlighten primarily the Filipino youth, so to bring back the prestige that they once own, as the driver of societal change in Philippine history. There will be no other reason for the toiling mass to reiterate its call for a genuine social change.”