In Davao, rally at Freedom Park, feast for Duterte supporters
DAVAO CITY—“Walang lechon baka dito pero merong kunsensya (We don’t have roasted cow here but we have our conscience),” Kunsensya Davao convener Mags Maglana described in the local dialect their Citizens Rage Against Corruption protest at the Freedom Park here, in contrast to the rows of roasted cow at a rally in Rizal Park attended by supporters of the Duterte family.
Also unlike the Rizal Park rally where people were only made to line up and listen to music and speeches, Maglana said youths actively joined theirs, showing that people in this city were against corruption.
The young crowd at the rally chanted “I-priso nang mga kurakot (Jail the corrupt).”
“For every peso that is lost to corruption could have gone a long way to support the youths,” said Benjie Templado Jr., convener of CRAC and a councilor at the UP Mindanao student council.
Templado, who spoke during the protest, also declared that before anybody should tell him to study instead of joining the protest actions, he said he had been studying well but it was the government that fell short in supporting the youth.
He cited ongoing cuts in the budget of state universities, depriving access to education.
Despite the fierce statement from first district Rep. Paolo Duterte tagging the progressive Makabayan and allied groups as communists, the Dutertes’ faces were not on the huge streamer on which activists threw mud and spat at toward the end of the protest.
The banner showed the faces of President Marcos as well as former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other personalities implicated in questionable flood control projects such as contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya.
Pockets of protests
In Valencia City, Bukidnon, residents gathered at the Rizal Plaza to join the nationwide anticorruption protest despite the rain.
Wearing white and black and carrying placards and umbrellas, protesters chanted, “Stand up, speak up, stop corruption.” Former city Mayor Jose Galario Jr. and city councilor Rolando Centillas joined the protest.
In Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental, at least two dozen protesters showed up at the plaza to demand accountability for the huge public funds lost to corruption.
Timuay Rico Recolito of the Save Mt. Malindang Movement, who spoke at the rally, said corruption and abuse of power was also killing the environment, citing the “wanton destruction” of Lake Duminagat in Mt. Malindang for a tourism project.
In Cagayan de Oro City, business leader Almarco Brito, Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, said corruption could be very costly to the people as it often pushed the government to incur public debt that would take ge —WITH A REPORT FROM JASON SIGALES
