TWO separate rallies—one for peace, the other to denounce the pork barrel system—held by religious and civil society groups kicked off at the Fuente Osmeña Rotunda yesterday.
About 300 people from party-list and civil society groups marched from Fuente Osmeña Circle to Plaza Sugbo before gathering in front of Cebu City Hall’s legislative building for a simple lunch.
They shared a meal of dried fish, boiled eggs, bananas and “kamote” (sweet potatoes) called “Salo-Salo sa Kabus: Bawal ang pork.” (Communal meal for the poor: pork is prohibited.)
“The country’s problem is not the lack of money, fish, land or rice but excessive greed,” said Fr. Aladin Luzon, a priest of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño and spokesman of the Abolish Pork Barrel System Cebu Chapter.
Luzon said they timed the rally with the 41st anniversary of the proclamation of Martial Law to show that the country isn’t free from the corruption and greed for power demonstrated during the Marcos regime.
Mark Canton, convenor of the Cebu Coalition Against the Pork Barrel System, stressed their call for the abolition of the pork barrel in all its forms.
“We are rich but we don’t see (how government spends) our money,” he said.
The next anti-pork barrel rally in Cebu City is scheduled next Sunday, Sept. 29.
Yesterday afternoon, more than 600 people joined an interfaith “Walk for Peace” from Fuente Osmeña to the Plaza Independencia.
The walk is part of the International Day of Peace observance, said Engr. Jomar Fuentes, president of the Preachers and Educators Assembly of Cebu (Peace) Inc. and one of the event’s convenors.
“Through inter-faith, we connect each other,” he said. Among the participants were students from the University of Cebu, University of San Jose-Recoletos, downtown vendors, Catholics, born again believers, Muslims, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints and even atheists. “We are thankful (to join the event) despite differences in our beliefs,” said Kurt Parami, a representative of Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS). With UP-Cebu intern Victor Anthony V. Silva