ANGELES CITY – The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) will be joining the planned Sept. 11 rally at the EDSA Shrine against the pork barrel system.
Dubbed “Edsa Tayo,” the rally would be the second anti-pork mass gathering in Metro Manila since Aug. 26, when people linked by social media fl ocked to Luneta to call for the abolition of the pork barrel system.
PGKM Chair Ruperto Cruz said it is best to bring warm bodies to EDSA to show that the Kapampangans are joining calls to scrap the corruption riddled pork barrel system. Earlier, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed support to the Sept. 11 rally against the pork barrel system.
Cruz said the PGKM will bring at least two busloads of protesters to EDSA on Sept. 11 to join the call for the scrapping of the pork barrel system. “There is no other time to show that we are against the pork barrel than now,” said Cruz. “We cannot be silent on this.
The protest should continue until the pork barrel system is finally scrapped,” he added. Without the pork barrel, he said, the number of congressmen will be lessened, Cruz said.
“Dapat sana one province, one congressman (It should be one province, one congressman),” he said.
“The government is just like operating a big corporation. There are only the revenues and expenses. If there are
less congressmen, naturally the government will be paying less,” he said.
“Huwag na po nating padaan kay Na-pules,” Cruz jokingly said in reference to a popular joke which said that an old woman was praying in church one day asking God for P1,000 which she badly needed.
When the policeman who was seated behind her, heard her praying loudly, he instinctively pulled out his wallet which had P900 saying this could already be a big help to her.
But when the old woman got the P900 from the policeman, she immediately returned to praying and said: God next time don’t let it pass through a policeman. Seriously, Cruz said, the money should be given to the people directly for their benefit.
The names of all the lawmakers involved should be made public so that the people will no longer vote for them, he added. “With this expose’ the lawmakers themselves become the law breakers.”
Cruz said it is better for the money to be used in paying our foreign debt, modernizing the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to protect the integrity of our country, improving the education, health and medical facilities and other social services direct to the people, he said.
If the pork is gone, then government agencies will become more efficient, unlike now when everything is dependent on the pork barrel fund, he said.
