Protesters at People Power Monument disrupt EDSA traffic

The traffic along a portion of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Quezon City was snarled on Thursday morning when militants staged a "lie-in protest" near the People Power Monument. A report by radio dzBB's Allan Gatus said members of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and Sanlakas marched along EDSA's northbound lane and lay on the road near the People Power Monument. The report said the protest was meant to dramatize the militants' dismay because majority of th e Filipinos still live in poverty 25 years after the EDSA-1 Revolution. The report said the protesters overwhelmed an anti-riot unit from the Quezon City police who tried to block their path. In a news release posted on its website, Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes Jr. said, “Today we join the Filipino people in commemorating the people power uprising that toppled the US-backed Marcos dictatorship." "It is the culmination mass protest actions from the First Quarter Storm of 1970, the protests against Martial Law, and the mass upsurge after the assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1983," Reyes said. "EDSA 1 represents a historic moment when the Filipino people decided to cast their lot with the call for change and installed a regime that promised the restoration of democracy and the improvement of the people's condition," he added. The late President Corazon Aquino, mother of the incumbent President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, rose to power after the February 25, 1986 People Power revolt. Mass actions Thursday's protest was one of at least two mass actions scheduled by militant groups in time for the EDSA anniversary. Aside from the "lie-in protest," the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) had also planned a march along EDSA from Cubao to Ortigas, and to the Department of Transportation and Communications office. Bayan said the post-EDSA regimes all failed to deliver on the promise of change. “Twenty five years after EDSA 1, and ten years after EDSA 2, the Filipino people continue to face the problems of poverty, landlessness, unemployment, human rights abuses, corruption and unequal foreign relations. There is no real change, instead there are many failed promises, under the ‘daang matuwid’ of Benigno Aquino III," Reyes said. He added the government should not reduce the meaning of "People Power" to the unqualified support for Aquino and his policies. The people cannot support policies such as the reduction of subsidy for social services, fare increases, human rights abuses, and bogus land reform, he added. Bayan added it was ironic that while the government is celebrating People Power, "its agencies are finding ways to burden the people even more." “The timing of the (Light Rail Transit Authority) board meeting that seeks to approve the LRT fare hike is a clear example of how the current government remains insensitive to the plight of the people," Reyes said. “The lessons of EDSA have shown us that changing presidents is not enough if we want to achieve genuine change. EDSA did teach us the value of collective action. The people must now exercise this power in struggling for genuine freedom and democracy," he added. – VVP, GMA News