Fr. Santiago Salas (Ka Sanny)
Spokesperson
NDFP Eastern Visayas Chapter
Spokesperson
NDFP Eastern Visayas Chapter
[Video: Fr. Santiago "Ka Sanny" Salas on Yolanda's one year anniversary
The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas is in solidarity with the thousands of Yolanda victims currently marching in Tacloban. We are likewise in solidarity with the millions of people in Leyte and Samar, who like the people in other regions continue to suffer from hunger and deprivation and face a bleak future. It has been a year since Yolanda. We are one with the people in accusing the Aquino regime of criminally neglecting those who survived this calamity.
We condemn the social injustice, the corruption, fascist repression and puppetry to the imperialists that mark the so-called “rehabilitation assistance for Yolanda” or “RAY-Aquino.” Long before Yolanda struck, the Filipino people were already reeling from the onslaught of the Aquino regime’s disastrous policies. The Aquino regime’s neoliberal standpoint translates to further opening the economy to foreign domination, the privatization of state institutions and allowing big business to control strategic sectors of the economy.
The people are hard put surviving on an average daily income of P49.00 in the face of widespread landlessness and unemployment. Despite its rich natural resources, the region’s economy, like those of other areas in the country, remains pre-industrial with backward agriculture that is import-dependent and export-oriented.
Supertyphoon Yolanda was able to wreak tremendous destruction for only a day. But the onslaught of the Aquino regime’s so-called “rehabilitation assistance” can be likened to supertyphoon Yolanda wreaking havoc day after day. It cannot form the basis of genuine reconstruction because its P360.9-billion budget corresponds to only 63% of the total damage caused by the supertyphoon, according to the government’s own estimates. Its only objective is to further impoverish the peasantry, with its agricultural reconstruction package costing a mere P18.7 billion in contrast to the Yolanda survivors’ estimate that agriculture suffered P64.5 billion in losses.
Meanwhile, the urban poor face demolition, not reconstruction, due to the “no build zone” and “no dwelling zone” policies designed to favor the entry of big business into coastal communities.
More than half of the reconstruction package has been allotted to a huge sector of housing and property developers tasked to repair 1.1 million damaged houses, leaving the vast majority without access to this fund. Instead of serving the people’s interests, “RAY-Aquino” favors the regime’s corrupt officials and friends in big business. At least nine corporations owned by a handful of wealthy families are planning to build their enclaves in the region.
It is but just for the people to despise the Yolanda reconstruction package. It is an insult to their anguish and bodes even further suffering. The people face even greater militarization and more violations of their human rights as the Aquino regime steps up political repression through Oplan Bayanihan. They are also bound to suffer the onslaught of US military intervention under the guise of “humanitarian assistance” and “disaster response” as provided for in the EDCA signed by the US and the Aquino regime.
Thus, the people of Eastern Visayas must be resolute. The struggle of the Yolanda survivors is very important, but it is just one of so many people’s struggles that must be launched. The NDF-EV salutes the Yolanda survivors and urges them to join ever bigger struggles for national freedom and democracy.
Let us oust the US-Aquino regime and the next puppet regime. Let’s rise up in arms to topple the reactionary ruling system at achieve national and social liberation.
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20141108_in-solidarity-with-the-yolanda-survivors-demanding-the-ouster-of-the-aquino-regime
We condemn the social injustice, the corruption, fascist repression and puppetry to the imperialists that mark the so-called “rehabilitation assistance for Yolanda” or “RAY-Aquino.” Long before Yolanda struck, the Filipino people were already reeling from the onslaught of the Aquino regime’s disastrous policies. The Aquino regime’s neoliberal standpoint translates to further opening the economy to foreign domination, the privatization of state institutions and allowing big business to control strategic sectors of the economy.
The people are hard put surviving on an average daily income of P49.00 in the face of widespread landlessness and unemployment. Despite its rich natural resources, the region’s economy, like those of other areas in the country, remains pre-industrial with backward agriculture that is import-dependent and export-oriented.
Supertyphoon Yolanda was able to wreak tremendous destruction for only a day. But the onslaught of the Aquino regime’s so-called “rehabilitation assistance” can be likened to supertyphoon Yolanda wreaking havoc day after day. It cannot form the basis of genuine reconstruction because its P360.9-billion budget corresponds to only 63% of the total damage caused by the supertyphoon, according to the government’s own estimates. Its only objective is to further impoverish the peasantry, with its agricultural reconstruction package costing a mere P18.7 billion in contrast to the Yolanda survivors’ estimate that agriculture suffered P64.5 billion in losses.
Meanwhile, the urban poor face demolition, not reconstruction, due to the “no build zone” and “no dwelling zone” policies designed to favor the entry of big business into coastal communities.
More than half of the reconstruction package has been allotted to a huge sector of housing and property developers tasked to repair 1.1 million damaged houses, leaving the vast majority without access to this fund. Instead of serving the people’s interests, “RAY-Aquino” favors the regime’s corrupt officials and friends in big business. At least nine corporations owned by a handful of wealthy families are planning to build their enclaves in the region.
It is but just for the people to despise the Yolanda reconstruction package. It is an insult to their anguish and bodes even further suffering. The people face even greater militarization and more violations of their human rights as the Aquino regime steps up political repression through Oplan Bayanihan. They are also bound to suffer the onslaught of US military intervention under the guise of “humanitarian assistance” and “disaster response” as provided for in the EDCA signed by the US and the Aquino regime.
Thus, the people of Eastern Visayas must be resolute. The struggle of the Yolanda survivors is very important, but it is just one of so many people’s struggles that must be launched. The NDF-EV salutes the Yolanda survivors and urges them to join ever bigger struggles for national freedom and democracy.
Let us oust the US-Aquino regime and the next puppet regime. Let’s rise up in arms to topple the reactionary ruling system at achieve national and social liberation.
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20141108_in-solidarity-with-the-yolanda-survivors-demanding-the-ouster-of-the-aquino-regime
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