Progressive party-list groups on Tuesday kicked off their election campaign, drumbeating old issues of social injustice and rising prices with new ways of catching attention to win votes in the midterm polls in May.
Flash mobs of dancing women in Quezon City dramatized the opposition of Gabriela party-list group to the government’s tax reform law amid rising prices.
Members and supporters of the Kabataan party-list group toured several universities in Quezon City and Manila with their mascot to promote the “youth agenda” of free education, freedom of speech and gender equality.
Members of Kabataan and Gabriela, along with Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Anakpawis, form the Makabayan bloc and part of the opposition in the House of Representatives.
The Gabriela dance on four busy streets in Quezon City called for the lowering of the prices of oil and other consumer products and the repeal of “regressive” provisions of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.
Mocha song and dance
One of the progressive bloc’s critics, former Assistant Communications Secretary Mocha Uson, also launched her party-list AA Kasosyo’s campaign in Lingayen, capital of Pangasinan province.
Uson, the party-list group’s first nominee, was guest at a regional transportation summit in Lingayen. She sang and danced with some transport operators.
She said she supported the government’s jeepney modernization program, which Makabayan and its ally, Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (Piston), criticized as an expensive and antipoor policy.
Gabriela vowed “a stronger fight” against the TRAIN law, blaming it for soaring prices that burdened women and their families.
“Support for Gabriela is an assurance of a courageous and a stronger voice for women in Congress against the tax reform law,” said Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas.
Women, gay rights
Citing the latest series of oil price increases, Brosas said gasoline prices had made a net increase of P1.50 per liter and P2.45 for diesel since the start of the year.
Aside from fighting for lower prices, Gabriela said it would push for measures that would safeguard and advance the rights and welfare of women, gays and children. It called on the public to join the One Billion Rising “dance revolt” on Feb. 16 in Manila.
The group’s provincial chapters also staged motorcades and flash mobs in the cities of Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and in Pangasinan, aiming to capture the maximum three seats in the House for Gabriela.
Kabataan presented the “Agenda ng Kabataan” (Agenda of the Youth) in a caravan that took its mascot, “Isko,” to schools in Manila and Quezon City. The mascot’s name is derived from “scholar” to drive home the group’s goal of free education.
Budget cuts
“The campaign for free and quality education is far from over, and ultimately the struggle of the youth is bound to the struggle for education,” said Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago.
She said state colleges and universities were facing “severe budget cuts” that undermined free education while private schools were continuing to raise tuition and other fees.
She said the youth agenda included challenges to “antipeople and antipoor policies” of the government that had eroded workers’ and farmers’ rights, and diminished social services and environment protection that could be addressed by national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform.
“The youth, not sticking to the confines within the four walls of their classrooms, have shown that they are ready, willing, and able to step out of their comfort zones and walk together with the basic masses in their struggle for genuine social justice,” Elago said. —WITH A REPORT FROM GABRIEL CARDINOZA