THE Cebu Coalition Against the Pork Barrel System composed of more than fifty (50) organizations from interfaith, academic, business and civil society organizations urges patriotic Cebuanos to go out on Sunday afternoon, September 29, 2013 and be one with all people of goodwill in denouncing the pork barrel system and in calling to end corruption in government.
The Coalition is one with our beloved Cebu Archbishop Jose S. Palma who endorsed the activity, “Please join the prayer rally on September 29. We are criticizing a system which is out of tune…When you come please be open to the thought that, we are not only decrying a bad practice. We are also praying to be inspired in order to discern and study and learn and eventually recommend solutions that would respond to the questions often asked when the pork barrel will be scrapped.”
We appeal to people with good hearts and clean conscience, especially Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) beneficiaries who would be painfully affected by PDAF abolition: May they understand the gravity and urgency of this radical solution. May they bear and see this temporary sacrifice as the birth pangs for the emergence of a better way of managing government resources and of improving the delivery of government services.
In consonance with Archbishop Palma’s call, the major focus of the September 29 event includes proposing potential alternatives to the pork barrel system.
We are going out on September 29 because we are impatient with the way politics has been conducted in our country and how such politics has caused so much suffering for people especially the marginalized.
We are going out on September 29 because we ache for a country where we count the number of Nobel Prize winners and Magsaysay Awardees, as opposed to how many plunderers have been convicted and put in jail.
On September 29, we are voicing our commitment for transformation. Once more, let the blood of our heroes, Lapulapu, Leon Kilat, all brave Cebuanos infuse into us renewed courage in standing for our rights and in standing for change. (archdiocesandiscernment@gmail.com)
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