THE NATIONAL
GUILDER The Official Publication of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines
SPECIAL ISSUE JULY 2015
Crown him unwanted Despot, corrupt, warmonger, inutile, slayer and fascist are all lexical permutations that cap the Aquino presidency. It has been a government that dragged the Filipinos to further destitute circumstances. A close examination of Aquino’s political landscape shows that the nation has been buried deeper in the chronic crisis brought about by foreign subservience, corruption and feudal oppression. In other words, his rule is no different from his predecessors who maintained the status quo of the ruling few. To an extent, he was even worse. Noting Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the president has plundered the coffers of the people to sustain a patronage according to his whim. And when halted by the Supreme Court, he flexed his ‘haciendero arrogance’ warning a bitter clash between the two equal branches. It has only proven that our governmental structure is at its core corrupt. This necessitates radical and genuine social change. For the last five years, Aquino has been fixated to the critique of the past – noting every current error as a repercussion of the previous administration, dodging accountabilty. While historical recounting may be a valid argument, his entire regime cannot absolutely cite such as if to strike a theme or a legacy. This does not hold water to the typhoon-stricken Filipino. Far worse for our national politics and sovereignty, this administration has even expanded US military presence through Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Coming as a portent, Jennifer Laude was mercilessly slain by a US soldier. Therefore, Aquino, with utter subservience, is instrumental to the semi-colonial nature of the country. This political predicament eventually translates to worsening economic situations. While Bloomberg and other economic ledgers of the west report growth rating, there is pervasive poverty. Prices of basic commodities spike to daunting figures. It is during this administration that garlic became more expensive than pork. Due to neoliberal policies, unabated oil price hikes stifle the people and local businesses. Where do the people run? Almost everything is deregulated. Almost everything is private. And when the common man dies of hunger, the Malacañang bats the old school sermon, “laissez faire.” A stark reality of this economic failure is that it is paired with massive unemployment and sub-human labor quality. A labor force faces contractualization damning them jobless after every five or six months. Considering they land a job, they receive a minimum wage, even below it, barely half the cost of living in the Philippines. Despite the call for P16,000 wage per month (a price not even amounting to a fourth of a capitalist’s profit), Aquino turned it down. Moreover, workers are even left in dangerous workplaces. For instance, the Kentex factory fire in Valenzuela City last May 13 took the lives of 72
workers, devastating families and leaving them without breadwinners. Without doubt, the labor force do not deserve this wage, treatment and president. In a parallel condition, the government maintains its exploitative labor export practices that uproot mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters from their families at the expense of their safety and lives. This is reminiscent of Mary Jane Veloso who up to now is among the 400 Filipinos across the globe still on death row. As for the government’s responsibility to the people, the Aquino administration has been successful in blurring the line between commodity and social services. Due to wide scale privatization, what has to be free has to be paid in large amounts. The MRT and LRT, for instance, increased to more than 80% impaling a huge chunk of commuters. Government hospitals remain inaccessible to those who cannot afford to pay. Band-aid solutions such as Philhealth offer fiction to Filipinos’ actual medical needs. During the Yolanda, the Aquino government has never been able to tend the basic needs of the typhoon victims. It has left the Visayan populace to scavenge for their own survival. Number of deaths needed to be faked just to whitewash the administration’s insufficient and delayed response. Taking a greater blow is the education sector. Private schools freely turn their schools into milking cows leaving students and parents burdened. Even, public institutions are abandoned to formulate their own money-making schemes. It is shocking that there would be incident of suicide in a state university due to an unbearable tuition fee when the constitution clearly spells that education should be accessible in all levels. To further damn the situation, the K to 12 Program has been implemented, adding two years of burden to students and parents. Aside from this, it also threatens thousands of teachers to be unemployed, underemployed or be subjected to contractualization. The program only benefits foreign economy, it exacerbates the regime’s labor-export policy creating semi-skilled and docile labor force in their millions to be shipped abroad. One thing is clear with the Aquino government: It never has a regard for dignity or human life. It shall continue its course no matter who is at stake. Aquino is a violator of life. His Oplan Bayanihan has resulted in 363 victims of extra-judicial killings, 26 victims of enforced disappearances and 110 victims of torture. In his desperate attempt to suppress his critics and escape accountability, he employs political harassment, intimidation and threats against leaders and members of progressive organizations. As Nobel laureate for literature Wole Soyinka puts it, “He is the hole in the zero of nothing.” As for the Filipino, it is nonetheless an imperative to devote time to expelling Aquino. And if it fails, crown him unwanted.
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