THE militant group Bagong Alyasang Makabayan likened the administration of President Benigno Aquino III to the Metro Railway Transit system which charges the people more for less and breaks down all the time.
“The Aquino government is like the MRT,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. “It promises to take you from point A to point B. It makes you wait and wait. It charges you more for less. It breaks down all the time and still expects you to be thankful that you arrived at your destination in one piece.”
“In many aspects, it is a train wreck and an intolerable burden on the people.” Reyes added.
Reyes noted that numerous train breakdowns happened almost every week since last year. The latest incidents took place Feb. 17, March 11, April 30, May 25 and just last month when hapless passengers were made to walk along Guadalupe Bridge to find some other transportation.
Bayan is bracing for what they described as “a deluge of lies and empty rhetoric” when President Aquino deliver his sixth and final State of the Nation Address on July 27.
Reyes said they will not be surprised if Aquino highlights Gross Domestic Product growth, the conditional cash transfer program and the prosecution of political foes as among the so-called achievements of the regime.
“What will obviously be missing in the SONA are the facts showing record unemployment amid the reported economic growth, rising prices and the privatization of utilities and services, depressed wages, the proliferation of contractual labor, migration and the lack of genuine land reform and national industrialization,” said Reyes.
“Aquino will try hard to proclaim to the world that his Daang Matuwid has resulted into economic growth. He will try to convince the people that his pledge of good governance is real, despite the selective prosecution of political foes and the persistence of barkadahan governance as demonstrated by the Mamasapano incident,” he added.
Bayan and its member organizations nationwide will deliver their own “People’s SONA” which they expect to be a summing-up of the more than five years of the Aquino regime. The SONA protests will tackle issues related to the economy, governance, foreign policy, and human rights.
The group does not see anything new or unexpected in Aquino’s final SONA .
“More than five years into his term, expect Aquino to again draw comparisons between his regime and the previous Arroyo government, if only to cover up his own blunders and failures,” Reyes said.
“Aquino’s legacy will inevitably include the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program, the Mamasapano crisis, the selective prosecution in the pork barrel scandal, the illegal Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), and the dismal preparedness and response to typhoon Yolanda,” he added.
The group said the issues that have also defined the Aquino administration include unemployment, questionable public-private partnership deals and the continuing human rights violations.