5,000 protesters demand ‘true freedom’ at Manila rallies
Video by NOY MORCOSO III/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—About 5,000 protesters from different sectors, both from the religious and militant groups, gathered to “demand true freedom” on Independence Day Thursday.
And true freedom for them means the Filipinos’ liberation from the pork barrel system and all forms of graft and corruption in the government, said the leaders of the half-day protest in Manila.
From Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola Peace Arch, the rallyists marched bearing lit torches.
They also paraded a 10-foot effigy that the militants called the “giant golden pig” symbolizing President Benigno Aquino III as the “pork barrel king.”
Former whistle-blower Jun Lozada, one of the convenors of the protest organizer #abolishpork movement, told INQUIRER.net that the significance of holding the anti-pork rally on Independence Day is recognizing the significance of “true freedom.”
“These are the people (rallyists) who value true freedom… our responsibility is to fight for our own freedom and to speak the voice of the Filipino people,” Lozada said.
The protest, according to Lozada, was held to “register the voice of the people against the system that continues to oppress Filipinos.”
“If in the past centuries foreign conquerors oppress the Filipinos, now Filipinos oppress their fellow Filipinos,” he said in Filipino.
Lozada said the demonstration denouncing the government’s pork represents Filipinos who have “no food, no jobs, and no money.”
The groups that participated in the marched included the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), the Whistleblowers Association, Church People’s Alliance Against Pork, Artista Kontra Korapsyon (Aksyon), University of the Philippines (UP) Faculty versus Pork, Youth ACT Now! and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).
Aside from Lozada, artists Mae Paner and Monet Silvestre, Lozada, lawyer Harry Roque and Archbishop emeritus Oscar Cruz expressed their support to anti-pork barrel demonstrators.
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