Archive for February 26th, 2008
FDC In The News: On 22nd EDSA People Power Anniversary
Aside from live TV and radio coverage, our protest action, led by Laban ng Masa, yesterday came out in today’s editions of The Philippine Star (Banner photo and story), The Daily Tribune (Page 1) and Philippine Daily Inquirer (online). Meanwhile, our statement is BusinessMirror’s editorial topic today.
BusinessMirror
26 February 2008, Page A10
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/02262008/opinion01.html
EDITORIAL
Where it failed the people
FOR this year’s anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution, one of the most relevant insights comes from the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), which was born at the height of the nation’s preoccupation with the gargantuan debt burden left behind by the Marcos dictatorship.
According to the FDC, one of the deep-rooted causes of the continuing instability 22 years after February 25, 1986, and the prevailing sense that the revolution has failed the people is the betrayal by succeeding post-Edsa governments of the “social-justice issues that were the backbone issues of the first Edsa uprising.”
These, added the coalition that, along with other civil-society groups, played a key role in engaging lawmakers in the crafting of the national budgets for 2007 and 2008, “were swept aside in favor of the return of elite and patronage politics, the restoration to political and economic preeminence of the traditional ruling classes and their continued subservience to foreign interests and institutions.”
The Philippine Star
26 February 2008, Banner story
http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20080225117
Headlines
‘Push away evil’
By Michael Punongbayan
(Con’t)
Anti-Arroyo rallyists also managed to breach legions of policemen stationed to guard the EDSA Shrine and reached the no-rally zone, following a brief but tense standoff yesterday.
Policemen were caught by surprise after militants belonging to groups like Laban ng Masa, Akbayan, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Sanlakas, and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino rushed towards the EDSA Shrine from different directions.
Bobby Deciembre, of LnM and FDC, said a thousand of their members assembled around 12:30 p.m. at Cubao before proceeding to the EDSA Shrine.
The Daily Tribune
26 February 2008, Page 1
http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20080226hed3.html
GMA ‘snubs’ Edsa rites; protests mark people power
(Con’t)
In Mandaluyong City, police were caught flat-footed as thousands of anti-Arroyo protesters ran toward the Edsa Shrine despite it being declared as a “no-rally zone” by authorities.
Led by party-list Rep. Etta Rosales (Akbayan), the group, that include members from the Freedom from Debt Coalition, Sanlakas, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and Muslim groups Bisig and Bangsamoro, were able to approach the Edsa Shrine around 3 in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Bishops Deogracias Iñiguez and Teodoro Bacani presided over a Mass held inside the shrine and later joined the protesters.
Inquirer Headlines / Nation
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080226-121210/Dont-wait-for-another-Cardinal-Sin-bishop-tells-people
Don’t wait for another Cardinal Sin, bishop tells people
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: February 26, 2008
(Con’t)
Outside, close to a thousand militants breached the police cordon around the Shrine for the first time since 2001.
The EDSA Shrine, also the site of EDSA II which ousted President Joseph Estrada, was declared by the late Pope John Paul II to be a “Sacred Place” resulting in the banning of protests and rallies in the area.
Some 1,000 militants from groups like Sanlakas, Akbayan, Freedom from Debt Coalition and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino managed to outwit policemen at EDSA and step into the shrine area, with only a phalanx of policemen and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s pink fences between them and the church.
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