Urban poor group calls for Aquino's ouster on EDSA People Power anniv

Twenty-nine years after the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown by a successful people power revolution at EDSA, the plight of the poor has worsened, according to urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay).

This mainly due to the fact that post-EDSA People Power regimes have been a puppet to the United States no less than Marcos dictatorship, and that the neoliberal policies espoused by the US have dug its pangs deeper into the Philippine economy to the detriment of poor Filipinos, Kadamay added.

According to Carlito Badion, Kadamay national secretary-general, the record-high poverty, hunger and unemployment rates in the country in the BS Aquino administration is a result of the past and present post-People Power administrations defying the call for genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, no matter how the government pretends that the local economy is among the tiger economies in Asia.

From the Corazon Aquino regime to his son's administration, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and its extension, the CARPER, has done nothing to alleviate the plight of millions of poor Filipinos in the countryside.

"The mistake of the two People Power revolutions in the past is that both have stalled new presidents that represent the ruling class of big landlords and big comprador bourgeoisie, and endorse neoliberal policies as framework of their economic programs," said Badion.

The United States, according to Badion, has had the hand in deciding who will be the country's leader every after People Power in the past, as it has made sure that the next president will endorse neoliberal economic policies and US military interventionism.

One thing is for sure, according to Badion, amid the Mamasapano fiasco and the growing call for his resignation, the quintessentially anti-poor and puppet in Malacanang needs to be ousted from Malacanang soon by means of another people power revolt, as the BS Aquino regime has derailed any plan for his impeachment.

Kadamay added that after the ouster of BS Aquino, the Filipino people should install not another president who will only represent the interest of ruling class and the United States.

"A transition council with representation from the oppressed sectors who joined the ouster movement should be installed. This council should immediately end the implementation of anti-poor programs of the Aquino administration which are behind the soaring prices of basic commodities, meager wage of workers and unemployment, privatization of basic social services and the demolition of homes in urban poor communities in favor of development projects. It should also facilitate a clean and democratic election to select new leader, and should ensure that BS Aquino and his cohorts will go to jails for their crimes against the Filipino people," said Badion. 

"We are calling on the urban poor to join today's protest at EDSA and the bigger protest-march to Mendiola on the 27th of February, to finally call for the ouster of BS Aquino from Malacanang," ended the leader. ###