The UP students’ Sept. 17 protest action during the visit of Budget Secretary Butch Abad was commendable and courageous. President Aquino and his top implementer of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) can no longer ignore the growing discontent and anger of the people at the siphoning of taxpayer money from public coffers.
In fact, the UP students should have taken a page from Ukraine and should have given Abad the “proper” treatment—one that involves a trash bin.
Malacañang and Abad are delusional if they think that they can continue to lure students into a pretense play of “sober discourse.” These students know the truth about the DAP; they can see past Mr. Aquino’s deception, and they refuse to continue to hear (A)bad lies. Since 2010, Mr. Aquino and Abad have been slashing the budgets for state universities and colleges while pushing for tuition hikes and campus commercialization.
UP students cannot by conscience idly sit inside the auditorium, take in Malacañang’s propaganda, and pretend they don’t know that the P200-billion DAP was a corruption fund invented by Mr. Aquino and Abad.
We know that the DAP was used to bribe the members of Congress during the Corona impeachment. It was used to compensate the landlords who have been evading land reform for decades. Clearly, the DAP was used to further the suffering of the Filipinos: It funded the violent demolition of urban poor communities and the even more violent operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
On the other hand, Mr. Aquino and Abad robbed the people of their much-needed services and benefits.
The Abad-Aquino tandem’s proposed 2015 national budget still carries the taint of corruption and remains antipeople. The DAP-like “savings” fund, lump sums and election funds for the pork-addict Mr. Aquino and allies remain intact.
The University of the Philippines is not merely an academic institution; it has been a place of militant struggle for many years. With the Oblation, a symbol of selfless service to the Filipino people, standing at its entrance, we welcome everyone into the university. But we shut our doors to corrupt politicians, plunderers and liars in government like Abad and
Mr. Aquino. UP is not a place for the defense of pork, corruption and the DAP.
Mr. Aquino and Abad should apologize to the people and resign.
—JAQUELINE EROLES,
UP student regent (2010-2011),
c/o anakbayan.media@gmail.com