Thousands to join protest against APEC

Anakbayan and Bayan are leading the weeklong protest actions against APEC, with thousands more to join in the coming days. (Photo from Bayan’s Facebook account)

MANILA – Thousands of activists vowed to join the ongoing protests against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held, asserting that the leaders’ meetings would only do so little in alleviating poverty in the Philippines.

Even with the “no permit-no rally policy,” protesters would still join mass actions at the venue of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) held on November 18 and 19 as they ‘fully exercise our constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms as we march against the APEC meeting.’

Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo condemned the APEC Summit as merely ‘a tool for imperialism and oppression’ against the poor people.

“APEC’s push for further liberalization of trade and investments, deregulation of prices and privatization of social services has kept wages low, prices high and the people in poverty.

It has killed what is left of our manufacturing, agriculture and has cursed our economy to backwardness and bankruptcy,” Crisostomo said in a statement.

“The big countries like the US and Japan have used the APEC to bully and exploit the poor nations, attack their economies, exploit their resources and people,” he added.

Crisostomo, together with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes, also slammed the Aquino administration’s ‘imeldific welcome’ on the APEC delegates in the expense of ‘turning Filipinos to second-class citizens in their own country.

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“Aquino, with his P10 billion imeldific welcome is like a slave trying very hard to please his masters. It’s cover up, the mass arrests of the poor, and the fascism being done to stop protests is reflective of what APEC really means for the people: exploitation, deception and violence,” Crisostomo said.

“We condemn the Aquino regime for imposing on the public the heavy burden of hosting the meeting, turning Filipinos to second-class citizens in their own country just so the regime could pander to foreign big business,” Reyes said in an interview.

Not fearing deportation or sanctions, foreign activists also vowed to join the anti-APEC rallies led by hundreds of youth and workers groups.