Musings on the Million People March at Luneta

Today is National Heroes Day, a national public holiday to commemorate the national heroes who fought valiantly for the country. Any remembrance of this sort is eclipsed this year by the Million People March which calls for the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel.

I joined the march to be counted as one of those who support the pork barrel abolition. Needless to say, I am among the millions of Filipino workers who feel betrayed, cheated and victimized by our corrupt and greedy public officials who allegedly pocketed millions of pesos through funding of bogus NGOs from their PDAFs.


The Names & Faces to be Remembered
Coincidentally, those whose names are dragged into this scandal have political ambitions in 2016. I could not help but think that if they were indeed benefactors of this corrupt system, then they certainly would cling and aim for higher government positions. Shame on these souls!

Ambiguous Calls
The common denominator among us who marched to Luneta is the call to abolish pork -- or so I thought for there were pockets of groups who obviously have other things in mind such as calling for PNoy's resignation. I could only surmise that there were leftists deployed by anti-administration camps to take advantage of the PDAF circus, and influence the minds of those who have little knowledge of what really is happening. There were groups calling PNoy as the Pork Barrel King when he is clearly NOT one of the crooks who misused their PDAFs. I say then that those who have clean intentions are those who calls for the PDAF ABOLITION -- no less, no more.


The Leftist Mendiola
My friends and I marched together with the students from UP after futile efforts of finding where fellow Ateneans were. We knew we were marching to Mendiola, but I never realized that only a few groups marched and they were mostly the ones who have anti-administration sentiments. I was in the wrong place. I cannot fathom their angst. While I understand the existence of their hatred, I cannot grasp the logic of calls for resignation. Who do they want to replace PNoy with? One of the PDAF senators? Or our vice-president who's seeming mantra is less talk, less mistake and is thus mum about everything?

I could not take any more of the blabbering on stage, so I went home ten minutes into the Mendiola program. Before I did, here are some of the photos of the Mendiola affair.

In Luneta, I signed my name calling to abolish PDAF.