PAMALAKAYA joins ‘ouster rally’ vs Duterte
Manila, Philippines — Thirty-four years since the historic People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, the left-leaning fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA), along with other progressive groups and broad patriotic formations, gathered in Mendiola, Manila to commemorate the victory of the people’s movement against a tyrannical regime.
“We honor those who took the streets, while we pay the highest tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in different forms of struggle to end the Marcos dictatorship,” Salvador France, PAMALAKAYA Secretary General said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Not only this is a commemoration of the victorious people power, but a declaration of a continuing protest against the de facto dictatorship of Duterte,” France added.
PAMALAKAYA said that “it has becoming more and more evident that President Duterte is being exposed and isolated from the Filipino people through his policies that detriment many democratic aspects of the country”.
“He persecutes those who resist to be allied with him and remain critical of his anti-people and undemocratic policies, the recent was the effort to shutdown the media-giant ABS-CBN,” said France.
The fisherfolk group also slated Duterte’s “puppetry to China” through the “sellout” of national sovereignty, as a reason to oust him.
“Duterte is guilty of treason and betrayal of public trust by compromising our rights in the West Philippine Sea. His utter neglect to protect the Filipino fisherfolk from Chinese harassment and occupation of our fishing waters is a turning point for the small fisherfolk in the country to call for his ouster,”
“We call on our fellow Filipinos to join the growing grievance and resistance against Duterte, in a form of another people power that would end his tyranny,” ended France. ###
