After being evicted at the Liwasang Bonifacio due to alleged pressure from Malacañang, the lumad who are now encamped in a Catholic Church in Parañaque City on Wednesday cried foul over Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s statements that the purging of Manila’s streets were meant to protect the image of the country.
“It hurts us, what they are saying especially President Aquino’s memorandum to Mayor Estrada that we are dirty and gravely hungry for the image of Manila. For us, what they are saying is that we aren’t being recognized and respected of our rights as Filipinos but instead, the government is prioritizing the foreigners who are here in Manila,” Datu Jumolito Goaynon, Kalumaran secretary-general and Manilakbayan spokesperson said in an interview over radio Veritas.
Estrada, in his visit to a city-operated transient facility in Marikina, denied claims that the clearing of homeless people from city streets was meant to whitewash poverty, adding that the need to protect the “image” of the country to foreign dignitaries who arrived for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit this week.
“It just so happened. We have to be rabid because it’s embarrassing now that we have foreign visitors. What will they say to us? That Filipinos are gravely hungry, sleeping on the street? Of course we won’t let that happen so we’ll clean up the streets,” Estrada said, stressing that it was part of a continuing city activity.
“This is our country. We need to protect the image of this country,” the mayor added.
The lumads, who trekked all the way from Mindanao to air their grievances to the government—despite asserting their “right to stay” in Liwasang Bonifacio beyond Apec week—were given until Nov. 13 to leave.
Goaynon said that their eviction from Liwasang Bonifacio is “a clear manifestation of disrespect to them being Filipinos and indigenous people who are just asserting their rights because of the continuing atrocities being committed against them.”
On Wednesday, the Redemptorist Vice-Province of Manila scored the Aquino administration’s straight path policy for putting the indigenous peoples at cost over alleged “nation-building” initiatives.
“In this time of highly popularized slogan of the “right path” [tuwid na daan], and the drumbeating of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, we urge everyone to reflect. With the indigenous peoples being killed and continuously being pushed to the margins, consistently being hidden as if they never exist, to the ultimate effect of annihilation, let us question as a nation and as a people who will really benefit from all these endeavours. As Redemptorists, and sharing the reflection of Pope Francis, these activities are all for the benefit of business, for market economy that kills,” the Redemptorist Brothers said, referring to Pope Francis’ encyclical Evangelii Gaudium 53.
“This harmony was only disrupted when large-scale mining companies and big dams were built allegedly for “nation building” in their ancestral domain. Let us open our eyes that the indigenous ways are far superior to all the modern developmental ideas combined,” the religious order added.
The religious order reminded for the flock to “walk with the lumad and all other indigenous people like the walk with Jesus on the Road to Emmaus,” adding that “the indigenous ways are far superior to all the modern developmental ideas combined.”
“This is our own take of “tuwid na daan” and our alternative to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation,” the religious order said.
Goaynon also decried on Wednesday the alleged “detention” being enforced by the police on their ranks, preventing them from leaving the Baclaran Church to take part in the Apec protests being staged in nearby CCP Complex.
Areas near the Baclaran Church were placed with Apec-themed tarpaulins supposedly to “block” the view of vehicles passing Roxas Boulevard from the distraught behind.
Anti-riot policemen meanwhile were posted near the Baclaran Church to ward off movements of those who would want to upstage protests for the economic leaders’ summit.
In an interview with reporters, PNP Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor was vehement in denying allegations from the lumad.
“If you will check, we haven’t closed the gates so how come that they’re being locked down? The reason why we’ve placed policemen there is because that is a strategic point. We’re implementing maximum tolerance for those who want to conduct rallies but still, it’s a no-permit, no-rally (policy),” Mayor said.
