With Gloria Arroyo facing corruption scandals, legitimacy issues and a flawed economic development, an umbrella youth alliance has renewed calls for genuine “social change” geared towards replacing an “oppressive” government with a “pro-people” leadership.

Newly organized Youth Revolt (YR) vowed to mobilize the youth sector to fight for people’s rights and call for a “real revolution” to change Arroyo’s dictatorial regime and the corrupt society.

Formally launched on December 8 last year, YR was convened by militant youth groups Anakbayan, College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Kabataan Partylist, League of Filipino Students, Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Resignation, National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines.

NUSP National President Alvin Peters said YR echoes the students’ significant role in leading movements towards democratic reforms, such as the First Quarter Storm in the 1970s and the past two EDSA uprisings.

“A revolt is in order. There is no other time than the present. We are one with the different sectors in attesting that Arroyo’s seven-year rule has aggravated our nation’s sorry state,” the organizations said in a unity statement released during the alliance’s forum on January 17 at the Episcopal Cathedral in Quezon City.

CEGP National President Jose Cosido added that the alliance’s urgent task is to broaden its affiliates calling for the removal of Arroyo.

Arroyo’s seven sins
Kabataan Chair Raymond Palatino, meanwhile, said Arroyo has committed “seven sins” against the Filipino people and has effectively ruined the credibility of social institutions, including the Commission on Elections, in her fight for political survival.

Arroyo has been a staunch puppet of US and has legitimized state terrorism, Palatino said. Poverty, electoral fraud, massive corruption and plunder, and bleak future for the youth had also characterized the beleaguered presidency of Arroyo, he said.

Peters added that Arroyo has intensified state abandonment of education through the government’s deregulation and privatization laws that further push state universities to venture in corporate tie-ups and implement tuition hikes.

The alliance pointed out that despite her much touted booming economy, Arroyo has failed to provide better social services like health and education due to her flawed prioritization of debt payments.

Genuine change
Palatino claimed politicians “have low credibility” to call for a “moral revolution.” He insisted that the masses must necessarily lead the call for “genuine change in Philippine society.”

YR, meanwhile, joined the mass mobilization on January 22 to recall the Mendiola massacre which claimed the lives of 13 farmers demanding genuine agrarian reform during Corazon Aquino’s presidency.

“Youth Revolt believes the youth can be catalysts for a real revolution. It does not just believe in token reforms in governance,” Palatino said.

Cosido added that the alliance wanted to “counter this kind of misleading principles” that reforms in the government would happen only by means of moral righteousness.

“We call upon our fellow youth to reverse the general tide of hopelessness that chronic economic crisis, widespread poverty, landlessness and deep social inequality have brought upon our generation,” the alliance said.# Philippine Collegian

<< back to home