----- Original Message ----- From: Charles F. Moreira To: M-L L Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 10:13 PM Subject: [M-L L] Philippine students and workers protest Estrada Comrades, Philippine students and workers protest Estrada Fraternally Charles > >CEGP (College Editors Guild of the Philippines) > >Budget cut protest >STUDENTS CONFRONT ERAP > > >ILOILO CITY-As riot police brutally truncheoned and hose down >protesting students near the Malacaqang gate last January 27, nearly >1500 students of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas >Region (UPV) in Miag-ao and Iloilo City (total population: less >than 3,000) stormed President Estrada's visit to Iloilo City in protest >of the slashing of UP's budget. > >Estrada's was here for a two-day official visit to Iloilo and Antique >where he handed out grants and inaugurated infrastructure projects. But >many observers here saw the trip as an attempt to boost his popularity >rating in the Visayas where he scored the lowest according to recent >surveys. > >The students, including 200 UPV high school students, braved the rain >and marched to the Iloilo shipping port where the President was set to >inaugurate the newly constructed Iloilo passenger ferry terminal. > >The protesters swelled to nearly 3000 after the UPV students joined >with urban poor groups and workers under the BAYAN-Panay (New Patriotic >Alliance -- Panay Chapter). The urban poor groups were protesting the >widespread demolition in Iloilo City with 25 of the city's 180 barangays >set to be demolished early this year. > >Th protests caught police and the Presidential Security Group (PSG) by >surprise forcing the presidential entourage to make an unscheduled stop >at a hotel minutes after Estrada arrived from Manila. The President >waited for at least 30 minutes until hundreds of police blocked the >protesters 500 meters from the inauguration site. > >Earlier, members of the city's task force on garbage collection removed >protest streamers at the UPV Iloilo City campus. One of the streamers >declared the campus "Marines-Free." > >Hundreds of students led by the broad alliance UPV-Students Forum from >the main campus in Miag-ao, 42 kms. south of here, joined with students >of the College of Management and high school students in the Iloilo >City campus where a short program was held before the march rally took >off. > >The protest was part of the ongoing campaign of major youth and student >groups here against the cut in the education budget. The groups include >the League of Filipino Students (LFS), Anakbayan, Samahan ng mga >Mag-aaral at Kabataang Kababaihan (Samaka-Association of Women Youth & >Students)), UPV Oikos, Student Christian Movement of the Philippines >(SCMP), CEGP, and National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). > >Rowena Narciso, CEGP-Iloilo > > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/marxist-leninist-list www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
