Human rights alliance KARAPATAN is in full solidarity with the People’s Protest Against Poverty, Corruption and Impunity on January 31st at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, as it calls on all human rights advocates to conduct protests in various parts of the country.
Organized by the Taumbayan Ayaw sa Magnanakaw at Abusado Network Alliance (TAMA NA), the Manila rally aims to demand that the government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. address the urgent issues of high prices of basic commodities and services, low wages, misuse of public funds and human rights violations committed with impunity.
The coalition deplored the rising poverty due to skyrocketing prices of food, oil and other goods, low wages and widespread unemployment. The latest SWS survey puts self-rated poverty at 63%, the highest in two decades.
Instead of addressing poverty, however, the Marcos government has imposed added burdens on the people, such as the recent 15% hike in SSS contributions. Social services have suffered massive budget cuts: Philhealth (P74.4 billion), priority social programs (P77 billion), Department of Education’s computerization program (P12 billion), government employees’ benefits (P2 billion) and financial aid for the poor and senior citizens (P52 billion), to mention a few.
On the other hand, politicians have never had it so good. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has confidential and intelligence funds amounting to P10 billion to spend. The Department of Public Works and Highways, with its infrastructure projects always a major source of kickbacks for corrupt politicos, has been given a whopping budget boost of P347 billion. Up to P26 billion has been added to House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s AKAP ayuda program in time to buy votes in the mid-term elections. The notorious National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) will have nearly P8 billion for its red-tagging and military operations that violate human rights and international humanitarian law.
And yet, Marcos Jr. is reining in efforts to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte who has squandered hundreds of millions of pesos in public funds. He is still loathe to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in having Rodrigo Duterte arrested and prosecuted, even if testimonies at the House Quad Committee and Senate hearings have shown that Duterte has protected POGO gangsters and drug lords and incited the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and political activists. Worse, the same human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that marked Duterte’s fascist rule persist under Marcos Jr.’s watch. The people have had enough. On January 31 st , Karapatan calls on the public to mass up and make their voices heard. Prices must be brought down. Wages must be raised. The 2025 budget must be shorn of all manner and form of pork barrel. Monies removed from the health, education and social services budgets must be restored, and the NTF-ELCAC must be defunded and abolished. Sara Duterte must be impeached now. Rodrigo Duterte
must be held accountable for his crimes.
On January 31st, the people shall air their urgent demands, and their voices shall resonate all the way to Malacañang.