On Aquino regime's remorseless rampage vs Filipino urban poor

PRESS STATEMENT
1 February 2012


This government has once again spelt its violence against the urban poor sector.

We condemn the brutal dispersal of protesting urban poor at Quezon City Hall on Monday who had only wanted to voice out their opinion, without any intention to neither harm anybody nor destroy any property.

Such spate of violence unleashed by the Philippines National Police under the DILG with consent of Mayor Herbert Bautista is no different from the use of water cannon and tear gas against barricading residents in San Juan City earlier this month.

Undoubtedly, these incidents only teach our man and women, children and aged to revolt against the system that has treated us not just criminals, but animals.

We condemn the harrowing reality that this government has been intensifying its campaign against millions of its very own citizens, to the extent of tagging as 'professional squatters' those who cannot afford their own space in the cities all because of their measly income despite enduring the hardest forms of labor and inhuman working conditions.

That while it has offered every piece of land of this country to the exploit of big foreign corporations and investors, it has also done all its effort, including arson, forced eviction and deception to drive urban poor dwellers from their communities.

Worse, it has conditioned us to believe that development can only be perceives in the form of skyscraper cities, through the use of mass media and the formal education. It has made us believe that billions of taxpayers' money and foreign loans used in constructing high buildings, long roads and bridges, and in funding its dole-out program are but amount well-spent.

For all the violence, suffering and discrimination that we endure from the government’s demolition rampage on urban poor communities, we account the blame and liability directly to the highest leader of the state, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

While the urban population grows in thousands every day, and while a genuine land reform that could have decelerate urban migration and address the widespread poverty remains so elusive under the landlord-Aquino regime, we vow to educate, organize and mobilize every urban poor to call for significant change.

With every attempt of this government to rob us of our shelter, livelihood, and dignity, we vow to fail them, and we will stand our ground, with every defensive blow we can give, and every pain that our families can endure.

We will lead to success every people’s barricade against demolition of our homes. ##


Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay)
Militant Center of Filipino Urban Poor
Reference: Carlito Badion, national vice chair (0939.387.3736)