GMA’s Promises are Bubbles in the Wind : QC IMC

July 26, 2004

Speaking before a crowd of around 1,000 members and supporters, AKBAYAN President Ronald Llamas scored PGMA’s SONA “As an elitist dish of neoliberal policy prescriptions which only means additional burden for the Filipino masses as it continues to be driven by borrowings and an increased liberalization of our domestic market.”

AKBAYAN members gathered along Commonwealth Avenue. As Llamas explains, “That’s what her promises amount to, bubbles that burst not so soon after you blow them,” he said. “Since her promises are not anchored on the genuine interests of the masses, GMA’s 10-Point Agenda will only be a self-defeating platform of unrealizable targets,” he explained.

For Llamas, PGMA needs to face the real issues that truly addresses the interests of the poor. “The implementation of radical reforms combined with genuine people’s participation will help realize a lot of the masses’ agenda,” Llamas added.

“Full and decent employment, genuine agrarian reform, affordable and quality education and housing, sound fiscal policies based on the assertion of national interests – her administration has so far lacked the political will that can prove once and for all that she is not beholden to elitist interests,” Llamas said.

Llamas added that as far as AKBAYAN is concerned, “We will counter-pose the legitimate interests of the poor under our ‘Plataporma ng Masa’ against the elite-backed SONA of the President not only through direct action in the streets, but legislative propositions that will effectively set up a policy environment conducive to genuine pro-poor reforms.”

“The whole package,” says Llamas referring to PGMA’s 10-Point Agenda, “is excessively geared towards the further promotion of a globalized economy despite Executive pronouncements to the effect that a Filipino-First framework will be followed,” he said. “If she is sincere that the poor will really come first in her agenda, then she should make an example and go after cronies and insulate her government from vested interests,” he advised.

“But the President is still to appreciate the fact that genuine and sustainable development depends not just on treating people as beneficiaries but as active participants in the process. It is a top-down agenda underlined by continued deregulation, liberalization and privatization,” he explained. “In essence what needs to be done is a re-evaluation of policies where they are either vague or grossly disadvantageous to our people’s interests. Otherwise,” Llamas said, “people will keep taking to the streets.”

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