The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for not only fooling the hakot crowd that she gathered at EDSA yesterday but also using hard-earned taxpayers’ money to do it. 

According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of the group, “talagang napakakapal ng mukha nitong si Gloria at nakuha pang magsabi na siya ang mamumuno sa paglaban sa korupsyon samantalang siya ang nangunguna rito. Mayroon kaming mga dokumento na nagsasabi na naglabas ng P2,709, 105 ang National Irrigation Administration (NIA) para umano sa kongreso ng Irrigators’ Association (IA) pero hinakot lang pala ang mga tao na kulang-kulang ay 3,200 para sa EDSA 1 celebration ni Gloria,”

“Ni ang presidente ng National Confederation of Irrigators Association (NCIA) na si Silvestre Bonto at ng National Irrigation Administration Employees Association (NIA-EA) na si Tony Reyes ay di alam na may pinatawag na kongreso. Samantalang sila ang dapat nagpatawag nito,” added Ramos.

As for his part Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP, “Gloria is trying to project herself as doing something to help the country and indeed she is but to its detriment. She once again tried to put one over the populace and by using their money at that. Actually many of the hakot crowd are saying that they were pomised busfare and merienda as well as P200, but when they got to EDSA and the program finished they were left there with nothing not even the bus fare to get home,”

“If the money she used for this nonsensical program was instead used for the betterment of farmers, then that would be a different matter. But again for the sake of her image we are the ones suffering,” ended Ala. # # #
 

KMP - 23 February 2005