By Jennifer P. Rendon
The gloomy weather matched the country’s gloomy situation or so various cause-oriented groups claimed during Monday’s “People’s SONA” held at the Sunburst Park in Iloilo City.
SONAgkaisa Panay, a broad coalition of groups, held their mass protest to counter President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27.
Based on the coalition’s assessment, around 400 individuals joined the rally.
As expected, the groups scored the government for the passage of Republic Act 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
They alleged that the Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB) might be a weapon to silence dissenters and curtail freedom of expression.
Monsignor Meliton Oso, director of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center, discussed the anti terror law. He also challenged the church people to voice out their dissent against the law.
Meanwhile, Siegfred Deduro of Makabayan discussed the failure of the government’s response in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. He also scored the Duterte’s dependence on United States and China.
Rev. Jenkins Bañas talked about the plights of migrant workers. The protest action also discussed the alleged injustices against workers.
Lucia Capaducio talked on hunger and killings against farmers John Farochilin and Harold Tablazon as victims.
The list of speakers also included Lucy Francisco who tackled urban militarisation which focused not on solving the pandemic but on surveillance and redtagging of urban poor leaders.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kristine Treñas talked on the militaristic way of dealing with the pandemic instead of implementing a medical way.
Apart from the mentioned issues, the rally also focused on the government’s crippling of freedom of the press following the closure of media giant ABS-CBN.
Earlier, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas gave his approval for several cause-oriented groups to stage a rally at the Sunburst Park at J.M. Park in J.M. Basa St., City Proper district.
Rally organizers started around 1:00 in the afternoon with their program.
“True enough, they began to disperse at the Sunburst Park and marched going to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol grounds before 4:00 p.m.,” Police Captain Shella Mae Sangrines, Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) spokesperson, said.
But far from the organizer’s assessment, ICPO pegged that around 100 individuals participated in the protest action.
“What’s important was the assembly was done peacefully. There was no untoward incident that happened,” Sangrines said.
OTHER PROTEST ACTIONS
Cause-oriented groups in other parts of the region have also staged their protest actions.
In Aklan, around 20 members of Bayan-Aklan converged at the Pastrana Park in Kalibo.
The group was mainly calling for the junking of the Anti-Terror Law.
The Kalibo Police Station did a dialogue an hour before the assembly.
The protest action ran from 1:00 – 4:25 p.m. on Monday.
Police Major Belshazzar Villanoche, Kalibo police chief, said the event concluded peacefully.
Meanwhile, members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) also held a mass action from the City Public Plaza to the New Public Market in Barangay 1, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Around 100 persons attended the event.
They called for the junking of the Anti-Terror Law, resolving land conflicts, and human rights concerns. The group also called for the conduct of mass testing.
In Bacolod City, members of Kadamay, Bayan-Negros, Kabataan, Akbayan, and National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) converged at the Bacolod City Public Plaza.
There were around 50 protesters while police deployed 80 members of the Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) contingent.
Police Colonel Gilbert Gorero, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) spokesperson, said all protest actions in the region ended peacefully.
