Thin crowd at Fuente rally but anti-pork activities to go on

Less than 100 people showed up for last night’s anti-pork barrel rally at Fuente Osmeña in Cebu City but it won’t be the last.

Cebuano composer Kinto Distrito sang the “Baboy song”, a satire about how public funds are misused by politicians, and rapper Latigo warned that “Kahit anong gawin, pork pa rin! Iba lang ang disguise.”

“We’re not embarrassed even if we are few,” said organizer Abbey Canturias, who read aloud a manfesto and passed it around for signatures.

He said the drizzle in late afternoon and early evening discouraged the turnout.

“This is a good start. We are planning other rallies until the pork barrel is totally abolished,” said hotel manager Stella Palomo Monteno, whose Facebook page “Fuente Ta Movement” invited people to attend the activity dubbed “911 Rescue the Nation” to coincide with Sept. 11.

There were 9,000 hits in the Facebook invitation, she said. However, the online response didn’t translate to warm bodies at the park.

A counterpart prayer rally “Edsa Tayo” in the Edsa Shrine in Manila was also thin at 1,200 compared to the almost half a million who massed at Luneta two weeks ago.

At Fuente Osmena, the crowd was a small one compared to the 3,000 Cebuanos who joined the indignation march-rally from Fuente Osmena to Plaza Independencia on Aug. 26, a holiday. The earlier mass action, held in the morning, was also prompted by a Facebook invitation and public outrage ofver the P10-billion pork barrel scandal.

Chief Inspector Renaro Agustin of Fuente Police Station said about 90 people participated in the peaceful gathering last night.

There were more law enforcers than rallyists at the park – 110 policemen in uniform and 20 plainclothes men from the Police Regional Office. The rally started before 7 p.m. and ended an hour later.

Noy Boy, a 66-year-old resident from A. Lopez Street, brought a red cloth banner that urged President Aquino to resign if he can’t get rid of the pork barrel.

He was at the park since 1 p.m. and said he skipped two meals just to join the protest action.

Jaime Paglinawan, regional chairman of the Bayang Alyansang Makabayan(Bayan), said five other rallies are ahead in September to press the President to scrap the pork barrel.

On Friday, Sept. 13, a prayer for good governance will be held at the Sto. Nino Basilica at 3 p.m. followed by a march to Fuente Osmena for a Mass at 5 p.m. On Sept 15 , “Jog against Pork” will be launched at 5:30 at the park. The jog will be held every Sunday until Aquino removes the PDAF.

Starting Sept. 18, an ecumenical prayer will be held every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Fuente Osmena. A noice barrage every Friday will start at Sept. 20. On Sept. 21, a nationwide “people’s march” will be held at 10 a.m. from Metro Gaisano to Colon Street followed by a communal meal called “Bawal ang Pork! Salo-salo sa Kabus” at noon at the Senior Citizens Park behind City Hall.

Paglinawan invited people to bring their own food.

“We will show what’s the difference between the food of the poor and what politicians eat from the money they steal from the people,” he said.

During the rally, Canturias, who owns his own firm called Campaigns and Images Group that did voter surveys in the 2010 and 2013 elections, read aloud a manifesto with three demands.

Abolish the pork barrel system formally known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF); punish those who abused the fund and replace the PDAF with a revised Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) where 70 percent goes to the local government unit and only 30 percent to the national government.

Canturias explained with Power Point slides how the PDAF works and three roots of the need for a pork barrel: restricted foreign investments; “Imperial Manila” and the presidential system.

Because of restriction of direct foreign investment, the Philippines remains poor and there are few jobs. Senators and congressmen depend on doleouts from the national government, he said.

He said the Visayas and Mindanao are left out of development projects which are focused in “Imperial Manila”, leaving congressmen to to depend on sources like the pork barrel for their local projects.

Lastly, because of the presidential system in the country there is a grid lock between the executive and the legislative.

“The president has his own agenda. To move faster, the approval of Congress will be bought through doleouts to congressmen and senators,” he said.

The solutions, he said are economic liberalization; empowering major regions of the country and a new system of government.

Some rally goers were given a chance to speak out on stage.

Reynaldo Digran, a shipyard worker, said he was angry against the pork barrel since he was in grade school.

“Daghang kabos sa kalsada, asa naman ang budget para nila? Tan-awa ang lifestyle anang mga senador, di mi ka-afford ana, pero gikan na sa among sweldo ilang gigamit,” he said.

(There are poor people on the streets, where are the budget for them? Look at the lifestyle of senators, we can’t afford that , but they are using money from our salaries.)