Planking is out, ‘Noynoying’ is in

NOT PLANKING Militant groups have come up with a new form of protest which they call “Noynoying” involving lying on the ground, looking bored and doing nothing. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Planking is so yesterday. The new “in” thing is to just laze around as if you have no worries, or “Noynoying,” in youthspeak.

Street rallies against oil price hikes have adapted to threats against planking protesters as youth militants are now going for an easier way in making their sentiments known.

On the campus of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, students lounging on the steps of a building looked utterly bored, some relaxed, but all very much idle.

This new look is “Noynoying,” in apparent reference to President Benigno Aquino III’s nickname.

Effortless pose

Anakbayan national chairman Vencer Crisostomo said the nearly effortless pose was a jab at the President, who he said had done nothing to cushion the impact of or prevent the spike in crude prices and tuition rates.

“He has not lifted a finger but he should be doing something. That is Noynoying, when you do nothing when in fact you have something to do,” Crisostomo said Thursday.

On the UP campus Thursday afternoon, some youth protesters tried their best in outdoing each other’s Noynoying look.

A female student in khaki shorts was on her back with shades on, as if without a care in the world, while another, in a dress, stared blankly out of a makeshift picture frame.

The frame had the words: “Noynoying, walang ginawa!” painted in bright red.

Mind you, the new buzzword is pronounced “Noynoy-ying” and not “Noy-noying,” Crisostomo said when asked for clarification.

The UP contingent, numbering around 50 or so, marched on Philcoa where they held a noise barrage in support of the transport caravan led by the transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytors Nationwide (Piston) to dramatize their opposition to unabated oil price hikes and Malacañang’s perceived lack of action on the matter.

‘We’ll A-Noy’

Einstein Recedes, the Kabataan party-list spokesperson, said the new gimmick was in response to warnings that protesters who would be seen planking on the streets would be arrested.

“Planking? That is so old already. Noynoying is the new in thing,” he added.

One can go Noynoying practically anywhere, though the best place to do it, Crisostomo quipped, was in a public place.

He said Noynoying could be done in a variety of ways—be it on your feet, sitting comfortably or even lying on one’s back.

“The important thing is that you’re doing nothing!” he added.

Noynoying should be also done in a group, he added, so as to send a strong signal of how irritating idleness could be.

“We will not just go Noynoying. We will A-Noy them,” the youth leader said, chuckling.

Sta. Mesa

Crisostomo called on the country’s youth to make the new fad go trending on the Internet by uploading their own Noynoying photos on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Students also did Noynoying in Sta. Mesa, Manila—sleeping, playing the handheld gaming-console PlayStation Portable or chatting on the phone.

“Basically, sitting around in Malacañang, staring at the air, doing nothing,” said the group of Femina Laya Canua, a freshman journalism student of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).

Walkout

Around 50 youth and labor advocates walked out of their classes at PUP and held a rally on the traffic island on nearby Altura Street.

The activists, via megaphone and banners, assailed the Aquino administration for doing nothing about the oil price hikes. They called for the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and the 12-percent expanded valued-added tax on oil, among other things.

“[Aquino] could urge congressmen to scrap the Oil Deregulation Law, as fast as he urged them to have Chief Justice Renato Corona impeached. He just chooses to do nothing,” said League of Filipino Students (LFS) spokesperson Gemma Cannalis, 23, a PUP math graduate.

Leaflets

The protesters, however, were not Noynoying around when Inquirer chanced upon them in Sta. Mesa in the afternoon. They were handing out leaflets to pedestrians and drivers of passing vehicles, and holding noise barrages.

In one of the nearby residential streets, Canua and her friends were collecting signatures from tricycle drivers.

They said they were  able to collect around 500 signatures from tricycle drivers and operators in the Sta. Mesa district since Wednesday. They were attempting for a million signatures of drivers wishing to express their opposition to oil price hikes.

The rally in Sta. Mesa was also attended by members of Liga ng Kabataang Propagandists, Anakbayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Anakpawis party-list group and the PUP’s school paper, The Catalyst.