There is one thing I will
remember most of EDSA Tayo on
September 11. I lost Php400 and my
senior citizen card to a decent looking pickpocket probably wearing an
anti-pork T-shirt just like most of the protesters gathered at the EDSA Shrine.
My money clipper was still in my
front pocket when I was taking photos of UP Economics professor Winnie Monsod as
she answered questions on her way out of the church. Many had been waiting to hear her powerpoint
presentation on the pork barrel, which was announced in the papers the day
before; but apparently, the shrine administrator had told her that political lectures
are not allowed in the church.
I could have been an easy target
for pickpockets as I squeezed through a crowd of photographers angling for a
good shot of former national treasurer Leonor Briones expounding on billions of
pesos allotted for pork barrel in the national budget. She was speaking from the platform at the foot
of giant image of Our Lady of Peace, and she was telling the crowd looking up
from the ground how much of the various porks—the PDAF (Php25.2-B), special
purpose fund (Php310-B), president’s social fund (Php2.6-B), automatic
appropriation or off-budget--are distributed and released. The special purpose and the social funds are
all presidential perks.
The crowd was not as large as
those that marched at Luneta on August 26.
It was estimated at more than 1,000 although more than 5,000 netizens signified
participation through the Facebook account of the event organizers.
Shrine rules banned the use of
banners, streamers and placards inside the premises but almost all wore
T-shirts printed with anti-pork graphics and statements. It was business as usual for vendors of
protest T-shirts and souvenir items like pins and pork masks.
Obviously, many Luneta marchers
stayed away because EDSA Tayo could
have been too soon for a follow-up, and September 11 was not a friendly day for
the working netizens. It could also be
the religious nature of the event that deterred people to come.
Netizen Junep Ocampo took off
from the Million People March, which he said was a beautiful experience. “Shall we stop there?,” he teased his
Facebook friends in Pilipino. And the spark: “If you’re game, let’s continue
pushing. Sa EDSA na tayo! September
11, tentatively, from sunrise until PNoy has abolished all forms of pork.”
Ocampo is a journalist by
profession since 1989, and has covered major events for his paper including the
state visit to China of Pres. Aquino and his attendance at the APEC Summit.
W e asked him if there is a
formal organization behind this EDSA
Tayo. There’s just me and seven friends as core, he said, who thought about
praying at the EDSA Shrine to sustain the Luneta initiative for the abolition
of the pork. The idea soon evolved into
a prayer vigil with the religious sector signifying their cooperation.
Cardinal Tagle did not express
support, he said. It was Manila
Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo who wrote Fr. Nilo Mangusad, rector of the
EDSA Shrine, to allow the use of the Shrine.
The letter was shared by Ocampo in his Facebook page.
“In
this moment of uncertainty in our country, we need prayers and proper education
to our people for guidance and strength,” the bishop wrote Fr. Nilo. “It is
alright then to allow the use of the Shrine of EDSA to the EDSA Tayo Prayer
Vigil ... This is on line [of] the call of CBCP [Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines] for the lay faithful to be
vigilant and to stand for their rights for the good of the country. We also
join in the call to abolish the pork barrel system in our government from the
President to the barangay level.”
The inter-faith
prayer vigil came after the noon mass and the lecture of Dr. Briones. The program had Stand for the Poor! Abolish Pork Barrel! as theme, and it was
presided by a religious, Fr Joe Dizon. Representatives from the Roman Catholic,
Protestant, Muslim, Hindu and indigenous people sectors delivered short
prayers. Carmelite nuns, Hari Krishna believers, pop singer Darryl Shy and
other sectoral singers provided music. Later,
the crowd rose with clenched fists to sing Bayan Ko to close the day’s program.
There
was not much attention on the inter-faith activity onstage especially when
activists shouted their slogans and unfurled their large streamer from the
elevated road facing the shrine. Another distraction occurred when a contingent
of activists with placards arrived. There was a minor scuffle when the police
tried to prevent them from getting into the shrine premises. “Papasukin, papasukin! [Let them in!],
the protesters howled, and they were let in, but were asked not to raise their
placards.
If I did
not have a copy of the program, I could have missed, like most of the crowd,
the symbols offered by the inter-faith vigil participants: the Philippine flag (nationalism), rice
(prosperity and justice), white candle (truth), and graphic images of graft and
corruption in the country.
In his
closing remarks, Ocampo told the crowd that he hopes the lighting of the candle
today marks the start of prayer vigils around the country, citing Pagadian City
and Jaro Cathedral having their prayer meetings too on this day. He asked the people to join one at the
Luneta on Friday, 13 September, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
He
closed the program with the Panalangin
sa Pagbuwag sa Sistema ng Pork Barrel [Prayer for the Abolition of the Pork
Barrel System], which he and his core group prepared, copy of which, he said,
can be downloaded from his Facebook account.
There is
still the call for another march at the Luneta on 21 September. It looks like there is still a long way to go
for anti-pork advocates even as the Supreme Court has found that the pork may
be unconstitutional and a TRO has been issued against the release of the
remaining slices of pork for 2013.
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