News release

January 6, 2012

The people cannot live on the Corona and Arroyo trials alone.

As the feast of the Three Kings officially marked the end of the Christmas season today, multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) reminded President Benigno S. Aquino III that the people are not only wishing for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona and his patron Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for their misdeeds.

“Equally important for the poor is the resolution of their perennial economic woes including the ever increasing prices of basic goods and services, joblessness, lack of livelihood, depressed wages, onerous taxes, landlessness among the peasants, and lack of social services including health, education, and housing, among others,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

Bayan issued the statement as it launched in a Quezon City public market what it called the “Wish List ng Masa” for the New Year today, which in Catholic tradition is also the Three Kings’ Day. Playing an important role in Christmas celebrations, the Three Kings, according to Christian account, brought gifts when they visited the newborn Jesus.

The “Wish List ng Masa” enumerates the best gifts that the people have long desired, said the group, even as it stressed that unlike the presents of the Three Kings, these wishes will not be served on a silver platter but can only be the result of unwavering vigilance and struggle. People passing the protest were asked to pick their “wish” for the year by activists dressed as the “Three Kings”.

Bayan noted that on January 1, private water concessionaires Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Company announced higher rates that will raise the monthly bill of households using 30 cubic meters by P20 to 58. On January 3, oil firms led by Pilipinas Shell implemented the first round of oil price hikes this year that increased the pump price of unleaded gasoline by 90 centavos per liter and diesel by 30 centavos.

“The price increases this New Year are a bitter reminder that the Aquino administration has miserably failed to address the gut issues during its first year and a half in power. Beyond the Arroyo and Corona legal dramas, the gut issues of prices, jobs, wages and social service remain. Aquino should not expect that the public will be distracted all the time by the impeachment trial and that the people will ignore the continued implementation of the flawed economic policies that impoverish and burden them,” Reyes said.

“Whatever political brownie points that Aquino will gain from efforts to oust Corona and make Arroyo accountable will be easily offset by the worsening social and economic conditions of the people,” Reyes said. #