Filipino workers overseas hold protests vs ‘pork,’ corruption

MANILA, Philippines–An alliance of overseas Filipino workers on Monday launched simultaneous protest actions against the pork barrel system as tens of thousands of gathered at Rizal Park in Manila Monday morning for the “Million People March.”

According to Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International, its chapters, members and affiliate members across the globe “found different ways and various forms to participate and show their outrage against corruption in the Aquino government.”

He said protest actions were held by OFWs in Asia, North Africa, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe to condemn President Aquino’s “hypocrisy and deception in his recent double-speak on the abolition of the pork barrel when his P1-trillion presidential pork and the P26-billion congressional pork remain in the 2014 national budget.”

Martinez said Migrante International initiated simultaneous global protests also to demand accountability and the prosecution of all those involved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam masterminded by fugitive businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

The group also called for the re-channeling of the pork barrel to provide free, more accessible and more efficient services and welfare assistance for OFWs in distress, he said.

“For the OFWs, it is only fitting that protests culminate today, National Heroes’ Day,” he added. “Dubbed the modern-day heroes, the OFWs are claiming their stake in the call to abolish Aquino’s pork barrel.”

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