Tags: state of the nation address

SONA 2022: Why Marcos Jr. economic blueprint will make the nation, ordinary folk suffer

Marcos Jr.’s priority is to ensure that the neoliberal policies that his predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte passed are maximized to create the most favorable environment for big businesses, including foreign capital. To become an investment destination, the administration will provide massive tax breaks to corporations through the CREATE Law and provide foreign companies more profit-making opportunities with the amended laws on public services and foreign investments.

Martial law survivors demand genuine apology, continue fight for justice

“We vow to continue the claim for reparation and recognition of thousand more victims by pushing for a better reparations law. We vow to continue to claim our hard-won non-monetary benefits, as mandated in RA 10368 or Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013. We will continue to resist the historical distortion peddled by the Marcoses and their apologists, and the return of the $6 billion more that the Marcoses stole from the Filipino people.”

People’s SONA persevered despite threats, intimidation

By JOSH AVENGOZA Bulatlat.com MANILA — Progressive groups from various sectors filled up a section of Commonwealth Avenue and held this year’s SONA ng Bayan despite the declaration of the said main road as a ‘no-rally zone’. The Quezon City Government granted Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) permission to stage a rally along Commonwealth, from Elliptical…

High inflation rate, oil price hikes hurting the poor, groups say

“If BBM does not believe government data that the inflation rate in the country has reached 6.1 percent, we, the poor, will express the true suffering that we are experiencing due to high prices of essential goods.” By JOSH AVENGOZA Bulatlat.com MANILA — Urban poor groups are concerned that their situation would worsen if  their…

Progressives assail decision to deny to SONA rally as ‘violation of law and rights’

“With its scare-tactics, the PNP is only succeeding in showing the world that it is a notorious human rights violator. It affirms why the US Congress voted to deny aid for the PNP because of its terrible human rights record. Let the world see the brutality and intolerance of the PNP under a second Marcos regime.”

The SONA and the fury

…[h]e presented no coherent plan of action to address them on the basis of a fact-based analysis of the last six months’ experience and the lessons learned from it. Neither did he say anything about addressing such major concerns of healthcare workers as the inadequacies of healthcare system equipment and facilities, the critical shortfall in the number of nurses, doctors, and other medical frontliners, and most hospitals’ being full to the rafters with COVID-19 patients.