Students led by the League of Filipino Students (LFS), in a teach-in today at the historic Plaza Miranda, challenged the Filipino students and youth to lead the struggle for “genuine social change” as the youth’s solution to the growing economic crisis.

“The Arroyo government’s sweet-talk on the stability of the economy has long been shattered. As all the countries of the world, we are likewise deep in recession, as a result of Mrs. Arroyo’s almost decade-long puppetry to the United States’ economic interests,” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

“The the dim government projection of retrenchments in industry-wide in the hundreds of thousands, serve as a clear indication of the failure of government to truly implement an economic program that can properly insulate the country from economic fluctuations in the global market.,” added Ridon.

“Instead of pushing for fundamental economic reforms such as genuine land reform and embracing the concept of ‘national industrialization’, Mrs. Arroyo simply prostituted the country’s national resources and exported our human resources for short-term and artificial economic accolades, benefiting neither our people nor the economy,” he said.

“As such, the youth and our people have no other option but push and struggle for ‘genuine social change’, which is essentially a call for deep-seated economic and political reforms, such as the implementation of compulsory land acquisition in pursuit of genuine land reform, the increase of government subsidies for basic social services particularly agricultural support and infrastructure, among others,” said Ridon.

“Nonetheless, we remain unwavering in holding this government accountable for its criminal and political crimes against the people, particularly the plunder of the government purse through anomalous contracts, and the execution-style killings of almost thousands of political activists in the course of Mrs. Arroyo’s tyrannical reign. Inasmuch as we struggle for genuine social change, we are as active to continue the ‘final push’ in seeking Mrs. Arroyo’s ouster from office, especially if her lackeys in Congress decisively push term extensions through Cha-Cha in the guise of amendments of its economic provisions.” ###

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