3rd anti-pork rally set for Sept. 29

ANOTHER anti-pork barrel rally is set on September 29, Sunday, in Cebu City, the third since the P10 billion scandal over legislators’ discretionary funds broke out.

Plaza Independencia will again be the venue of an inter-faith rally, organized this time with consultations by the Archdiocese of Cebu with civil society groups in a meeting held Thursday.

A Mass will be held at 1:30 p.m. at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.

People will march from the Fuente Osmeña Circle to the Plaza where the first rally on Aug. 26 drew 3,000 participants. The inter-faith prayer rally will start at 3:30 p.m.

Details of the program are being ironed out, said Marc Canton, lead convenor of the Movement for a Livable Cebu (MLC).

He moderated a coordination meeting at Sacred Heart Center called by the Archdiocesan Discernment Group headed by Msgr. Rommel Kintanar.

A Facebook event page for the September 29 rally said the group had four demands to the government.

“As the sovereign people, we, the real bosses are united in respectfully ordering our public servants the following:

1) To punish convicted pork barrel schemers, and their loot returned to the coffers of the people;

2) To abolish the pork barrel system by whatever name or form. We include the pork barrel of all three branches of government; namely, the executive, legislative, judiciary; and their ancillary departments;

3) To respect and protect the people’s sovereign right to reclaim management of public funds for the benefit of the common good; and eliminate patronage politics;

4) To provide the people with all the information they need in the interest of transparency, accountability, and co-responsibility.