Protesters burn Aquino effigy as he delivers SONA

Photo by Frances Mangosing/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Despite light rains, protesters led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) burned an effigy of President Benigno Aquino III as he delivered his State of the Nation Address Monday afternoon.

The effigy symbolizes the issues raised against the incumbent president.

For Aquino ‘s fourth SONA, Bayan said the president was portrayed as “a 13-foot high giant feasting on a banquet.”

“But unlike the traditional fiesta, where hospitality, generosity and goodwil is encouraged among the whole community, the President’s banquet is depicted as a lavishly sumptuous feast for a small circle of guests as the people wait for crumbs falling from the table,” Bayan said in a statement.

“Sunugin si Aquino, tuta ng mga Amerikano,” the crowd chanted.
Police estimated a crowd of around 5,000 along Commonwealth Avenue for this year’s SONA.

This year’s effigy is supposed to be the militants’ take on the kind of economic “growth” that the Aquino government “is expected to trumpet” during the SONA, according to Bayan.