Urban poor groups to march vs anti-poor policies on Holy Monday

Two days after the burial of Kristel Tejada, the University of the Philippines student who took her own life  after her parents failed to pay for her tuition fee, fellow urban poor from different corners of Metro Manila will march to UP Manila on Monday as part of the annual Kalbaryo ng Maralita protest this Holy Week.  

Before noon tomorrow, hundreds of urban poor members of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) are expected to gather at Kalaw cor Taft Avenue before they march to UP Manila. They will proceed to the US Embassy and Mendiola, making short stops at the Department of Justice, Department of Tourism and Department of Labor and Employement in the afternoon.

The big march, which according to its organizers is a protest against anti-poor policies of the Aquino administration, is expected to block Taft Avenue and Padre Faura Avenue as protesters have their first stop at the gate of UP Manila where they plan to tie red ribbons to express their anger over the recent tragedy that hounded the university. 

An early morning protest at the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) at 830am will serve as prelude to the whole-day procession. It aims to highlight the effect of privatization of public hospitals to indigent patients

At the Supreme Court, the groups will protest the 21st anniversary of Urban Development and Housing Act, which KADAMAY dubs as Urban Demolition and Homelessness Act. 

According to group, the said law is behind the violent cases demolition of urban poor communities which have escalated under the Aquino regime under its PPP program. The first 50 PPP projects, KADAMAY cites, are expected to eradicate homes of at least 1.4 million families in the National Capital Region.

A petition is currently filed by KADAMAY at the high court to junk anti-poor provisions of UDHA which was enacted on March 24, 1992 under the first Aquino administration at the hype of the imposition of different anti-poor policies  based on neoliberal globalization. 

Meanwhile, at the DOJ, the groups will forward the cases of 13 urban poor leaders and members who were extra-judicially killed under Aquino's Oplan Bayanihan, as well as the cases of other KADAMAY leaders who were illegally arrested, and filed with trumped up charges. 

This year's Kalbaryo ng Maralita will also showcase cultural presentations that depict the calvary faced by the urban poor due to policies and programs implemented by different government agencies. These includes the two-tiered wage system implemented by the DOLE, privatization of national parks as Luneta and construction of eco-tourism projects that will wipe out urban poor colonies, Oil Deregulation Law and the Conditional Cash Transfer program of the DSWD, among others.

The march is expected to end at the foot of Mendiola by 630pm, where they will burn a 10-foot high effigy of President which they say is the Modern Pontius Pilate that has subjected the urban poor, including Kristel Tejada, to further misery and death.

According to Gloria Arellano, KADAMAY national chair, “We hope that the message of our protest to our countrymen will be clear: That President Aquino's claims of daang matuwid and economic growth are all but propaganda, and that his three years in office have only shown that Aquino is promoter of neoliberal policies and Oplan Bayanihan at the expense of his countrymen.”

Arellano added that different forms of protest against neoliberal and oppressive policies of the Aquino administration will also be staged in major cities nationwide this Holy Week.###

Reference: Gloria Arellano, KADAMAY national chair, 0921.392.7457