KARAPATAN on Marcos Jr.’s SONA Extravaganza
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS STATEMENT
16 July 2024
Reference: Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Karapatan Public Information Desk, +63918-9790580
KARAPATAN on Marcos Jr.’s SONA Extravaganza
The Marcos Jr. regime is set to produce one of the biggest extravaganzas ever—the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2024. Initial estimates already put the cost of this extravaganza at a whopping PhP20 million for this event of a few hours.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has also announced that it will be deploying up to 20,000 police personnel to secure the event, twice the estimated number of people who will be joining the protest rallies during the SONA.
And while congressmen and their wives will once again try to outdo each other in showing off their finery during the SONA, progressive legislators have been warned against expressing their sentiments through their outfits.
The Roman emperors of old tried to mollify their restive masses by catering to the latter’s demands for bread and circuses. Marcos Jr., however, only manages to present the people with one lavish circus after another, but not much bread. The most he has done is to offer smelly rice at PhP29 per kilo to a select few.
The Filipino people are tired of seeing their money go down the drain in expensive but pointless spectacles like the SONA circus, where a trying-hard magician called Marcos Jr. will once again attempt to regale his audience with illusory achievements through statistical sleight-of-hand. The people see through the deception and are no longer buying it.
They demand to hear the true State of the Nation and be rid of Marcos Jr., the washed out magician, and his bag of tired, old tricks.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.