PROSPECTS UNDER PGMA GLOOMY, SAYS AKBAYAN : QC IMC

July 23, 2004

“Malaya na si Angelo dela Cruz, pero paano naman kami?”

Three days before the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), the party-list group AKBAYAN is pessimistic over the country’s economic, political and social prospects under the Arroyo administration. In a press conference held today at the party’s headquarters, AKBAYAN sectoral leaders took turns in enumerating various hardships that the President has failed to address during her first three years in office. Worse, according to AKBAYAN, she continues to be indifferent to these issues, not going beyond palliative measures and lip service.

“Agrarian reform practically died under the Arroyo administration. No substantial political will was exercised to speed up the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law” Ka Nestor Eugenio of the AKBAYAN Peasant Caucus said. Yet, dimmer prospects are found in the job market. Not only has the number of jobless Filipinos grown to 5 million, but even those who find work are confronted by lack of job security. “Contractualization of labor certainly antedated the Arroyo administration, but she has not done anything to reverse the situation ” Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) Edwin Bustillos stressed. Vic Manato of the Labor Rights and Democracy emphasized that “GMA even promoted labor casualization in her so-called ‘one-million jobs’ program, providing barangay-level jobs that were menial, hazardous and short-lived.” The two labor leaders agree that it is not hard to imagine that her promised 6 million jobs will be of the same type: insecure, with low value-added, and under difficult working conditions.

Given the depressed job market, it is not surprising that thousands of Filipinos prefer to risk their lives in Iraq rather than “suffer a slow death if they stay here. Yet, in various ways, overseas Filipino workers (OFW) suffer a slow death abroad” said Ellene Sana of the Center for Migrant Advocacy. The recent kidnapping and threatened beheading of Angelo de la Cruz is but an extreme example of the hardships that OFWs go through. “In the past two months, local news had featured cases of OFWs coming home severely beaten, insane or dead. While we are happy that dela Cruz is home safe and that various quarters have extended assistance to his family, why do we not extend the same caring to millions of OFWs who suffer in distant lands?” Sana asked.

For their part, AKBAYAN leaders from the urban poor sector decried the continuing inadequacy of the government’s socialized housing program. “The government should systematically plan its socialized housing program not only in terms of providing more resources, but also in expanding the modes of acquisition available to the urban poor. Even with the budget deficit, we demand that socialized housing be a government priority” stressed urban poor leader Ric Domingo.

AKBAYAN’s youth leaders, on the other hand, pointed out that the situation of the youth has been steadily deteriorating due to economic deprivation and the rising cost of education. “Of the 33.7 million youth between the ages 5 and 24, 13.4 million (almost 40%) are out of school. Many are forced to drop out to help augment the family income” Elvira Escoto of AKBAYAN Youth pointed out. Yet, these out-of-school youth face even gloomier prospects in the job market, as attested by the fact that young people aged 15-24 make up almost half (2.3 million) of the 5 million unemployed. AKBAYAN Youth criticized government for its lack of substantial programs that would make education accessible and raise overall quality.

Fisherfolk leader Ka Uper Alerosa emphasized that given the past record of the administration, they are not optimistic that the situation will improve if substantial reform is not put in place. Sol Anda of AKBAYAN Women announced that AKBAYAN will hold a “SONA NG MASA” on Sunday where a “People’s Platform” will be unveiled.

http://www.akbayan.org