Text and photos by VINCENT GO
THE United Nations had declared March 20, 2013 the first World Happiness Day. But for hundreds of activists in the Philippines, it was a day of protest as they held simultaneous mass actions in various parts of Metro Manila to voice their unhappiness with the performance of President Benigno Aquino’s III, now in his third year in office.
About 50 protesters who gathered outside the Department of Health in Manila pelted its headquarters with tomatoes to assail what it said was the Aquino administration’s policy of abandoning its responsibility of providing basic social services to favor private profits.
“This government is already killing us with ever-worsening poverty and hunger caused by Aquino’s inaction over unabated hikes in the prices of petroleum products and in the rates of electricity and water. Aquino wants to kill us even more by depriving us of our basic right to accessible health care,” said Joel Maglunsod, Anakpawis executive vice president.
Protesters called on the DOH to restore the charity wards in public hospitals, saying jobless and underemployed Filipinos cannot the semi-private PhilHealth wards now being offered to indigent and charity patients.
At the Philippine General Hospital, some 100 students from University of the Philippines-Manila joined other groups to mourn the recent suicide of a student from the university. It condemned what it called the flawed system and unbeneficial policies, especially toward students from poor income families, of UP Manila.
“Today we protest meager state subsidy for social services, high prices of basic goods and services, and the government’s privatization policy, the prices of petroleum products, power and water rates, and tuition fees are all soaring high because of the government’s policies, ” said Kilusang Mayo Uno Elmer Labog.
He added, “The Aquino government is lying through its teeth when it says it has no control over tuition fees and other prices. It is using bureaucratic structures and processes in trying to obscure the fact that it is all for tuition fee increase.”
Sixteen-year-old Kristel Pilar Mariz Tejada, a UP Manila behavioral science freshman, killed herself last Friday. She dropped out of school after failing to pay her tuition this semester.
Following her suicide, UP President Alfredo Pascual on Tuesday lifted the “no late payment” policy for tuition payments.
Protest centers were also set up elsewhere in the metropolis, including UP Diliman; Puregold in Sta. Mesa, Manila; Batoda tricycle terminal on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City; Anda Circle in Port Area; Litex Market in Quezon City.
