Independence Day rites: SC chief lashes out at 'economic colonizers'

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Thursday said that Filipinos remain shackled to poverty because of "economic colonizers." In a speech read during the Independence Day celebrations at the Bonifacio National Monument in Caloocan City, Puno lashed at unnamed foreign economic powers whom he described as present-day oppressors of Filipinos. These groups, he said, use their money and influence to trample on the social and economic rights of the people. Speaking in Tagalog, Puno said “economic colonizers" can be easily recognized because they are the reigning nations who offer their help to third world countries like the Philippines in exchange for our natural resources to suit and advance their own economic agenda. “While the foreign ‘political colonizers’ have already gone and left us, they have been replaced by other foreign powers who we now call ‘economic colonizers.’ They are the foreigners who continue to suppress the social and economic rights of the people," he said. Puno said these are very rich countries known for dictating upon other dependent nations as to what legislation or regulation should be passed. Some moneyed countries, he also said, try to improve their images by lending poor countries with money. However, he said that the debts come with heavy interest. In the same speech, Puno also lashed out against Filipinos who operate as syndicates and prey on the poor by using their influence to monopolize a particular trade. “As long as the spirit of Andres Bonifacio lives on in our hearts, no foreigner, no fellowman, no matter how wealthy or influential, could smother our freedom and stamp on our rights," he said. - GMANews.TV