About 12,000 are expected to attend the “Trillion Peso March” in Bacolod City on Sunday, Nov. 30, to demand an end to systemic and massive corruption in government.
Former Negros Occidental governor Rafael Coscolluela – TAMA NA-Negros (Taumbayan Ayaw sa Magnanakaw At Abusado Network Alliance) spokesman, Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop Virgilio Amihan Jr. of Iglesia Filipina Independiente at a press conference on Thursday, Nov. 27, called on the public to join the march.
“We call on the Filipino people to unite and march with us this Sunday, Bonifacio Day, to begin the process of genuine transformation,” their unity statement read by Coscolluela said.
“Needed reforms must begin with our collective voices, which when amplified, will flood our corrupt system with the loud call for genuine systemic change,” he said.
Coscolluela said TAMA NA expects 7,000 participants from their multi-sectoral groups. About 5,000 from the Diocese of Bacolod are also expected to join.
The Diocese of Kabankalan will also conduct a similar activity, Coscolluela said.
In Bacolod the assembly points for the march participants will be the South Capitol Road and the Lupit Church at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. They will then march to the Bacolod City Government Center replica at the public plaza where the rally will start at 1:30 p.m., Coscolluela said.
Amihan said the Iglesia Filipina Independiente is also standing up against corruption and joining the march.
Their unity statement said bureaucratic corruption has “long plagued our system of governance and robbed the people of vital social services necessary for a healthy and happy life of all Filipinos”.
“The poor and powerless, those whom our faith compels us to serve, bear the brunt of this systemic ill while those in power further swell in wealth and might,” it said.
“Corrupt bureaucrats and public officials have lost all sense of propriety and conscience; they have engineered systemic corruption and constructed budgets that prioritize personal gain over the people’s welfare,” it added.
The statement said united they call for thorough and impartial investigations into corrupt laden public works and government projects, as well as scandalous abuse of public funds.
“After these investigations, we call on government to swiftly let the hammer of justice fall upon responsible officials and their cohorts so they are held to account. It is not enough that we lay bare the anomalies; the law must take its course so that we rid our nation and our government of the crooked ways of old,” the unity statement said.*