Bayan: COVID response failure, gag on dissent to highlight SONA protests

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr. on Sunday said the public outrage over the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, and the government’s penchant for suppressing dissent will be the highlight of the protests during President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address on Monday.

In a statement, Reyes described the COVID-19 pandemic as Duterte’s "Yolanda" [referring to he most disastrous typhoon in recorded history], but “just many times worse.”

He said the “failed government response to the rising number of infected people, the worst economic crisis in history and the overall lack of direction in containing the spread of the disease will be remembered as part of Duterte’s legacy.”

Reyes added people will also remember that in the middle of a pandemic, the Duterte administration “rushed” the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law “against dissent” and shut down ABS-CBN, “relegating thousands to unemployment status.”

“The people will remember how thousands of jeepney drivers were reduced to begging in the streets, and of overseas workers and locally stranded individuals sleeping in pavements as they waited for a ride,” he said. “There will be accountability for all these one day.”

Moreover, he called for a comprehensive plan to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to help vulnerable sectors displaced by the lockdown as the nation faces a health crisis.

“The people demand a stop to all forms of suppression of dissent and all efforts aimed at exploiting the pandemic to solidify fascist rule in the country,” Reyes said, adding, “The outraged people seek an end to a regime of tyranny and oppression.”

Reyes said various groups will come together for the #SONAgKAISA rally at the University of the Philippines Diliman at 10 a.m.

Bayan will be leading the protests in different regions, as well as abroad, Reyes said.

Meanwhile, the annual burning of Duterte’s effigy on Commonwealth Avenue will not take place when the president delivers his SONA this year.

According to Raffy Tima's report on "24 Oras,” this year's effigy will be an e-ffigy, an electronic pre-recorded version which activists intend to share far and wide.

The e-ffigy is designed by the Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo or SAKA, an artist alliance for agrarian reform. —LBG, GMA News