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| Photo by Rommel Ramos |
MALOLOS
CITY—About 800 Bulakenyos led by church leaders joined a unity walk here
Wednesday in support of the Edsa Tayo prayer rally calling for the abolition of
all forms of pork barrel.
Organized
by Bulacan for Truth, Justice, Accountability and Meaningful Change movement
(BuTJAM) in cooperation with Promotion of Church Peoples’ Response (PCPR), the
unity walk started at the Bulacan University (BulSU) to the historic Barasoain
church.
A
support activity to Edsa Tayo, the unity walk turned prayer vigil is joined by
priest, pastors from other religious groups, nuns, students and civic leaders
in the province.
Participants
called for the abolition of the pork barrel system, hold accountable those that
were involved with the corruption and plunder of nation’s coffers, and
re-channel the fund to social services. Father Rolando De Leon, the main
convenor of the group explained the issue of the pork barrel “is an issue of
morality and social justice.”
He
added “in expense of the Filipino people that suffer from the budget insuffi
ciency in social services like education, health, housing and other basic
services, our lawmakers in cooperation with Janet Lim-Napoles, pocketed our money.
They have liabilities to the people, they have to be punished.”
The
same was echoed by Father Anacleto Ignacio, the secretary general of the Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Bulacan chapter.
“The
whole pork barrel system, not just the congressional pork but also the fatter
presidential pork, should be abolished,” Ignacio said.
He
stressed that “the P1.4-trillion presidential pork barrel alone, if justly
allocated to promote peoples’ welfare, can lay down the condition to national
industrialization and genuine agrarian reform that could solve the decade-long
problems of the society.”
For
her part, Sha De Jesus of the BulSU student council called for the realignment
of pork barrel funds to social services like education.
De
Jesus said, “our government is quick in creating schemes that aggravate our
plight, such as implementing the Roadmap to Public Higher Education Reform
(RPHER) that intensifi es state abandonment in SUCs through commercialization
and paving the way for amalgamation and privatization but was unhurried in
addressing the exact problem of the society.”
The
group concluded their vigil shortly before lunch yesterday, but not after
vowing to conduct similar activities in the next few weeks. “This is just the
beginning,” said De Leon noting that the activity is just a kick off for
similar actions in other neighbouring provinces of Bulacan with aim of
spreading awareness on their call to abolish pork barrel.
De
Leon also called for the ratifi cation of the proposed Freedom of Information
Bill noting that publication of local and national government budget and
programs on the internet are not enough.
He
said that there are other information that are being withheld from the people.
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