PRESS RELEASE
11 September 2014
Progressive Filipinos in Europe will hold protest actions against Philippine President BS Aquino when he visits several European countries from September 14 to 20. They want the governments and peoples of Europe to join them in telling the world “Enough of BS Aquino!”.
This was expressed by Rev. Cesar Taguba of Migrante Europe, which coordinates a network of progressive Filipino organizations in Europe. Majority of Filipino compatriots continue to support rehabilitation efforts of the victims of typhoon Yolanda, and are actively campaigning against the pork barrel.
“BS Aquino is going on a costly public relations tour in Europe to try to repair the irreparably damaged image of his supposed ‘righteous path’ that has been exposed to be rotten and crooked,” stressed Taguba.
Reverend Taguba said Filipinos in Europe are rightfully seething with anger since last year when the inutility of BS Aquino was exposed with his handling of the Yolanda (Haiyan) disaster, and later with the public exposure that he is the biggest user of the so-called “pork barrel” funds (DAP), which the Philippine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional.
“He (Aquino) has become a lameduck president, exposed as the number one user of pork barrel, a traitor to the Philippine Constitution for signing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which allows the basing of US troops in the country, and an enemy of human rights,” Taguba says. The increasing number of undocumented Filipinos in Europe, working as domestic helpers, he says, is the starkest indication of Aquino’s failure to uplift the economy and solve unemployment and poverty in the Philippines.
Recently, Taguba says, Aquino wants to be another Ferdinand Marcos, for wanting to extend his term as president, which the Philippine constitution forbids, in order to divert public attention away from his corruption and coddling of his political allies involved in stealing billions of public funds. The term extension issue, Taguba explains, has prompted a scathing editorial from the influential New York Times, that warned him against “political mischief” and virtually blew up Aquino’s remaining reputation in the international community as a defender of his parents’ democratic ideals.
Taguba says Filipinos in Europe and their European friends will conduct meetings and discussions on the issues in the Philippines, hold mass actions, lobby European governments to stop aid to the Aquino government, and probably hound Aquino as he trots around several countries in Europe.
Aquino is scheduled to visit Spain (Sept. 14-15), Brussels (Sept. 15-16), France (Sept. 17-18) and Germany (Sept. 19-20). Meanwhile, Filipinos and environmentalists are preparing to picket BS Aquino during his attendance in the UN Global Climate Summit in New York after his Europe junket.
Reference:
Grace Punongbayan
MIGRANTE Europe
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
[email protected]
+31-6-33056411