By Nina Macapinlac, Vice Chairperson, AB-NJ
In an address to World Economic Forum delegates in Manila, Noynoy Aquino was recorded to have said:
“We have to invest in our greatest asset–the Filipino people…The power behind all our efforts–whether in pursuing inclusive economic growth, improving competitiveness, food security, or disaster risk management–comes not from any individual, but from the people.”
The people? President Noynoy Aquino, what people?
In a country where 40 families control the majority of the national economy and where more than 11.1 million families are in poverty, I ask again, President Noynoy Aquino, what people?
Despite claims of a booming economy, this improvement is hardly inclusive and has only served the interests of foreign big business and the top 0.01% in the Philippines.
Sham independence and sham development are what the Filipino people have been fed but we see through your lies, Noynoy!
Export-oriented growth, labor export policy, and the neoliberal Public Private Partnership have only resulted in more poverty and more unemployment.
These economic policies are not serving the Filipino people but perpetuating and strengthening their bondage under US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism.
For the Philippines to be truly free, it must strive to achieve the necessary factors for growth such as national industrialization and genuine land reform.
We denounce the puppet regime of the Aquino administration that has intentionally kept our country underdeveloped instead of building a sustainable economy! We denounce the government that has looted and plundered our rich country while the Filipino people suffer! We denounce the system that has pushed our families to leave because of unlivable economic conditions causing our youth to grow up in a country that is not their own!
As the people of the Philippines and the Philippine diaspora, we demand the immediate removal of Noynoy Aquino who has only broken promises and excuses to show for the last four years!
Anakbayan New Jersey 