MANILA, Philippines – More than 300 children shouted “i-Knock-out si Gloria!” to the question “Sagot sa Karahasan ni Gloria sa Bata?” This was on the occasion of gathering Saturday of Filipino children near the Presidential Palace in Manila.
The independent Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, which accused President Gloria Arroyo of violating the rights of the children, led the gathering on the eve of the much awaited Pacquiao-dela Hoya Dream Match in the US.
Children from various urban poor communities joined children-victims of human rights violations in their own spoof of a knock-out match that featured children from various sectors pitted against a caricature of the President with markings: “The champion human rights violator, Gloria Arroyo”.
“For seven long years, our children are continuously being knocked out by various anti-child policies that the Arroyo government has inherited and perpetrated, as well as created and enforced,” Alphonse Rivera, the group’s officer-in-charge and spokesman, said in a statement.
Dubbed the Nightmare Match, the Salinlahi gathering featured children who were victims of economic deprivation and political repression in a boxing match with an Arroyo-look-alike in boxer shorts with huge boxing gloves made from “camouflage” cloth to depict her militaristic response to the citizenry’s struggle for social justice.
At the end of the program, children representatives of various sectors such as the farmers, workers and urban poor communities, together with adult leaders of people’s organizations all together held on to a “people’s solidarity glove” and gave “Gloria Arroyo” a 1-2 knock out punch.
Rivera said Arroyo’s administration consistently blocks the passage of bills on legislated wage increase and genuine agrarian reform, the removal of the R-VAT in oil and other basic needs. He said that this fosters the further degradation of the working and living conditions of families from the basic sectors – the workers, farmers and the urban poor. As a result, incidences of hunger, malnutrition, drop out from school and child labor among these marginalized children increase.
Rivera warned that there is a limit to the Filipino families’ patience. “The children and their families cannot and will not allow this situation of oppression and injustice to continue. Time is on their side and they are committed to persevere in various ways consistent with their evolving capacities to see social justice prevail, no matter how long it takes. Sooner or later, the champion human rights violator will be knocked out,” he said.
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