STATE OF THE URBAN POOR (SOUP)

Forum to "contest the lies of Arroyo's SONA", forge unity among poor vs Cha-Cha under way tomorrow

Tomorrow, the group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) will stage its major pre-SONA activity of the urban poor, a forum which it says shall "belie Arroyo's expected claims of poverty alleviation and improvement of the poor's condition, in her upcoming SONA" and shall forge unity among urban poor leaders against Con-Ass and Cha-Cha.

The forum is called 'State Of the Urban Poor' or SOUP.

Selected topics shall be presented by distinguished panelists, to illustrate how Arroyo's policies have in fact led the urban poor to deeper poverty and worse conditions. Among these are:

"The Continued Effects of the VAT on the Urban Poor" to be presented by Mr. Arnold Padilla, BAYAN Information Officer;

"The NFA Policy on Rice: Limited Access to Cheap Rice by Millions of Poor" to be presented by Mr. Santi Dasmariñas, Secretary-General of the government employees' group COURAGE, which holds the NFA-Employees Association as one of its member-unions;

"Layoffs, wages, and unemployment: government's inadequate and anti-poor response to the global financial crisis," to be presented by Ms. Anna Leah Escresa-Colina, deputy executive director of the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER);

"The A(H1N1) Threat and the Lack of Healthcare Services for the Poor", to be presented by the Community Medicine (Commed) Foundation.

The forum then shifts into the immediate threat presented by the administration’s plans for Con-Ass and Charter Change, highlighted by a presentation by the IBON Foundation ("Arroyo's Charter Change leads us in the opposite direction of genuine land reform and national industrialization") and the passing of a resolution among the urban poor leaders, to thwart the Con-Ass and Cha-Cha and participate in the people’s protest at the SONA.

The forum participants, expected to be 200-300 urban poor leaders and members, will march afterwards to join the scheduled coordinated protests against Cha-Cha.

*************************************************************************************

State Of the Urban Poor (SOUP): Tomorrow, July 20, 1:00 PM

Bulwagang Tandang Sora, 3/F College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) building, UP Diliman

After the Forum (around 5 PM): March to Tandang Sora Avenue cor. Commonwealth for coordinated Cha-Cha protests

Media Coverage is Requested.

*************************************************************************************

Kadamay Public Information Department

Jon Vincent Marin | 0910.975.7660

Radney Flores | 0907.492.5184

In the Morning: "Sa halip na katiyakan sa paninirahan, Con-Ass ang inatupag"

Members of Kadamay among relocatees in Montalban, Rizal have long been fighting for security for their homes and against exorbitant payments levied by the National Housing Authority (NHA). The day they picketed the House of Representatives to demand a dialogue with Housing and Urban Development Committee chair Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, who refused to see them, the congressmen passed the HR 1109.

In their long, drawn-out struggle for justice, as victims of demolition still denied their rights to adequate housing and a decent standard of living, the Montalban Relocatees Alliance (MRA)-Kadamay then turns to the NHA in Kasiglahan, Montalban to demand an audience with the local administrator and forward their petitions.

******************************************************************************

Tomorrow Morning, July 20, 10:30 AM

Picket-Rally at NHA-Kasiglagan, Brgy San Jose, Montalban (Rodriguez), Rizal

Media Coverage is Requested.

******************************************************************************

Please contact Daena de Guzman, Kadamay-Montalban, for this particular activity. Thanks.