Is all else lost?
Aren’t Filipinos ready for reform? Is it a hopeless case?
We in AKBAYAN stand strong and committed in our belief that Filipinos are ready for reform. In fact, Filipinos think that reform is long overdue.
The scandals under the current regime are far worse than most of us could have imagined. We may have grown accustomed to personal interests and big money putting pressure on our national leaders, yet we were still stunned by the systematic takeover of the culture of impunity with the highest leader of our land as the foremost perpetrator.
All these have shaken the very foundation of the Filipino people’s faith in the government. They have lost confidence and stopped believing that the government can make a difference in their lives. In fact, it is common for ordinary people to ask, “When is it our turn to be heard? When will the government pay attention to our needs? When will someone in Malacanang and Congress stand up for us?”
Bringing Back Hope…..
We say, ENOUGH! Enough of bribery, scandals and corruption. Enough of broken promises. Enough of failed leadership. Enough of our democracy in hemorrhage.
We have finally arrived at that turning point. Something must change.
Let us begin the work of reclaiming Philippine politics and reinvigorating it with the values of decency, integrity and self-sacrifice. The crisis confronting us signals the urgency of modernizing our politics – to make political parties truly more representative, our political institutions more transparent and accountable, and our social service delivery systems able to deliver immediate relief and strategic solutions to dehumanizing poverty. We must continue to make inroads for the poor that their voice can be heard in the national chambers of policy-making, just as we deepen grassroots democracy in their local areas. We must ensure policies that are humane, people-centered and insulated from the temporary interests of those who are in power.
To help build the foundation to a better future, we need our government to be more efficient, more transparent, and more creative.
We must work, and work hard!
Pag Akbayan ang Lumaban, Panalo ang Mamamayan! - Our Track Record
Akbayan presents itself not as Congress’ representative to the people but a political party that represents the Filipino people in Congress.
AKBAYAN was created several years after the EDSA Revolution asserting the need to broaden the benefits of the restoration of democracy to where it is needed most: the farmers for whom agrarian reform is not yet a reality, the workers who need job security, the urban poor communities in cities all over the country, the helpless civilians who are caught in the crossfire in the war in Mindanao, vulnerable women who cannot claim control over their own bodies, and the middle class families who simply dream of raising their kids in a more prosperous and more just society than the one they grew up in.
Amidst a system of corruption and traditional politics, along with an Armed Left that claims monopoly over societal change and a disturbing history of its excesses, AKBAYAN crafted its vision: to change the system by engaging it. The idea is to instill in everyone that each of us has a stake in our country, that we are all in this together, and that we are capable of putting forward credible reforms. Then as now, we firmly believe that if democracy is to be real, it must be participatory. If governance is to be efficient, it must be transparent.
AKBAYAN is the party of open and honest government, exposing corruption and the misuse of taxpayers’ money in Congress. In 1998, despite its fledgling status as a political party and at the House of Representatives, AKBAYAN through Rep. Etta Rosales, exposed a wide-scale corruption involving the payola of P500,000.00 per Congressperson in order to pass the EPIRA Law. The party also bared the massive defrauding of 23,000 public school teachers in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with the non-remittance of their GSIS contributions and other fees amounting to a staggering P1.2 Billion. More recently, AKBAYAN filed graft charges against the First Gentleman and the architects of the NBN-ZTE deal and voted for the impeachment of the current President for her involvement in anomalous deals as well as the “Hello, Garci” scandal. This we did relentlessly, with no pork barrel and no heavyweight financiers or traditional political muscle propping us up.
AKBAYAN is the party of affordable and accessible health care for all. We fought for the passage of the Cheaper Medicines Law, designed to lower the cost of essential medicines in the Philippines. Ventolin, for instance, a medication for bronchitis, costs P315 in the Philippines, while in India and Pakistan, where it is sold by the same multinational company, it can be bought at way less than half its price at P132 and P65, respectively.
AKBAYAN is the party working for asset reforms and social justice. We worked hard for the enactment of the CARP Extension with Reforms (CARPER) Law, which extended funding for agrarian reform and incorporated much-needed change to address age-old iniquities in the countryside. Peasants and agrarian reform advocates all over the country heralded the passage of CARPER, despite opposition from landowning blocs and the Extreme Left as a turning point for rural development in the country.
AKBAYAN is the party that ensures democratic representation in all spheres of our public life. We spearheaded the passing of the Right to Self-Organization Law so that workers can rightfully be represented in their workplace in deciding over matters concerning their welfare and job security.
That’s what AKBAYAN is.
But we also know that there are much needed reforms we cannot do on our own, and there are many things that we can do better together. We both know that it isn’t enough to just say that we’ve had enough.
We are more than eager and proud to work with you. Together, we can hope for better things to come, and say YES to the call of our Inang Bayan for political rebirth.
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