The national youth group Anakbayan today expressed a lack of surprise at the plummeting survey ratings of President Noynoy Aquino, saying it is the expected outcome of the his administration's anti-youth and anti-poor direction. In fact, the said policies have led the group to half-jokingly quip that Noynoy's popularity ratings are 'proportional to his spending for social services' and 'inversely proportional to the prices of basic commodities and services and unemployment'.
"Aquino's soaring unpopularity comes as no surprise to us youths, especially since we were one of the first to reject his 'yellow rhetoric'" said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan.
Crisostomo cited last year's nationwide series of anti-education budget cut campus strikes and student protests which are the first-ever large-scale protests directly against the Aquino administration. Even then, in which surveys pegged Noynoy's popularity at an all-time high, effigies of the president were burnt for the very first time.
He meanwhile dismissed a statement by Budget Secretary Butch Abad that the proposed 2012 national budget will focus on social services, as a vain attempt to prevent a repeat of last year's protests and shore up the government's failing popularity among the public.
"Last year, they claimed there was no budget cut to education, but now, many state universities are introducing new fees or finding creative ways to hike their tuition rates. Do they really expect us to believe this latest fantastic claim of theirs?" said Crisostomo.
Even if the boasted 12% increase in the social services budget is to apply separately to the budgets of basic education, state universities, health, and housing, this would only translate to 2012 funding levels of P226 billion, P27 billion, P40 billion, and P6.2 billion respectively (from 2011 rates of P202 billion, P24.4 billion, P36 billion, and 5.6 billion).
"The UNESCO recommends that we at least double this year's education budget. Health advocacy groups say we need at least P90 billion to reform our hospitals and health centers. What are we supposed to do with the barya being offered by the government?"" asked the youth leader.
He concluded, "Hindi lamang mauulit ang mga protesta ng kabataan nung 2010, titindi pa mga ito hanggang sa SONA kung saan tens of thousands ang inaasahan naming mag-wawalkout mula sa klase at sasama sa mga malalaking rally".
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