Anti-Arroyo protest Monday, February 25, 2008 in Iligan City. ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 25, 2008) – Filipino activists pelted with rotten tomatoes pictures of President Gloria Arroyo during a rally Monday in the southern city of Iligan.
Members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) also demanded Arroyo’s resignation over corruption allegations that sparked huge protest rallies in the country since the past weeks.
The protest coincided with the 22nd commemoration of the EDSA People Power revolution that deposed President Ferdinand Marcos and catapulted Corazon Aquino into power in 1986.
Today’s nationwide protests by opposition and civil society groups failed to attract citizens to join the rallies that could have triggered another people power revolution.“People power fatigue is never true,” Bayan’s secretary-general Anjo Bacarisas, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
“The people will never be tired of struggling against a President who gives them the hardest days of their lives, and the collective action of toppling this hated regime is the only way out.”
“The people’s poverty increases while Arroyo gets richer! Hunger is everywhere,” he said.
Bacarisas said Arroyo’s boasting that the country’s Gross Domestic Product has risen 7.5% was an empty reality. “The growing numbers of people instead are living with empty stomachs and it is deception on the part of this regime to paint the picture of a progressive economy.
Rising prices of basic commodities, oil price hikes, lack of jobs, low wages, land grabbing — this is the real situation of the people,” Bacarisas said.
In nearby Cagayan de Oro City, more than 500 anti-Arroyo protesters also held noise barrage and marched in downtown area calling for the president’s resignation. (Merlyn Manos)
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