ANGELES CITY- On the eve of Pres. Aquino’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), farmers from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog regions asserted that his P144-billion Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) did not benefit the rural poor, even as they stormed yesterday the President’s residence on Times St. in Quezon City to air their sentiments.
“The main beneficiaries of Aquino’s unconstitutional DAP are big landlords, corrupt bureaucrats, and energy monopolies,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Chair Rafael Mariano said. He charged that “the landlord president aggravates the insult and oppression of farmers and the rural poor by exploiting their poverty as a convenient excuse and justification for their plunder of public funds.”
“The unconstitutional DAP is the epitome of bureaucrat capitalism in the country,” Mariano stressed, adding: “It is the height of shameless and brazen corruption to use DAP funds to compensate the President’s relatives (for land reform in Hacienda Luisita), to fund a megadam project that will displace 17,000 farmers and indigenous people, and to pay for the debts of the National Power Corporation and power monopolies,” he said.
Mariano was referring to the P5.4-billion DAP funds released for landlord compensation that includes Hacienda Luisita and the P450-million Jalaur Megadam Project in the province of Iloilo said to be Senate Pres. Franklin Drilon’s pet project, and the alleged “P750-million assistance to the province of Quezon.”
“Isn’t it totally revolting for the Aquino government to use ordinary taxpayer’s money to pay for the tax liabilities of the privatized NPC and foreign investors to the province of Quezon?” Mariano asked.
He said that “instead of the people of Quezon gaining P6.1 billion that is rightfully theirs, Aquino himself maneuvered, reduced, condoned the debts, and mobilized public funds to pay the debts of NPC and Tokyo Electric Power and Marubeni Corporation, the socalled Team Energy.”
Mariano noted a report from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) saying that the P750 million was the result of the compromise settlement on the tax liability of the National Power Corp. to Quezon province stemming from the operation of Team Energy’s 735-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Pagbilao town.
He further noted reports that Quezon province had long tried but failed to collect P6.1 billion in real property tax from the plant operator despite a favorable Supreme Court decision and that in February 2011, the President, through an executive order, reduced the real property tax and condoned the back taxes, including all surcharges and interests, owed by the plant operator to the provincial government.
The KMP said farmers from Hacienda Luisita and Quezon province held a vigil at the Department of Agrarian Reform Sunday night and joined the mammoth rally yesterday at the Batasan to express their “rejection of the Aquino regime.”
“Hacienda Luisita and Quezon farmers are victims of Aquino’s unconstitutional DAP. They are more than determined to march to Batasan and demand the President’s ouster from power,” Mariano said.
