PRESS RELEASE
April 28, 2010

“The graduation speakers are wrong. After graduation, the new graduates are without work nor can they expect any bright future anytime soon.” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, national chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as students and youth picketed the Department of Labor and Employment to decry growing youth unemployment despite being bright-eyed new graduates.

Ridon said that with the current state of the economy and the economic policies of the Arroyo administration, new graduates can only expect menial jobs abroad and slavish employment in call centers.

“Worse, the leading presidential contender, Noynoy Aquino promises more of the same policies on the economy and employment as Mrs. Arroyo.”

Ridon said that Aquino affirmed free enterprise and foreign labor export as pillars of his economic agenda.

“With such continuance, the nine years of hardship under Arroyo will still be experienced under an Aquino presidency.”

Ridon lamented that most of his economic advisers were those from the Arroyo administration, notwithstanding the having support of ’neoliberal’ economic luminaries of the Cory administration who were the architects of privatization and deregulation after the dictatorship.

Privatization had caused the sale of basic industries like water and electricity to the private sector. Deregulation had caused the prices of oil to uncontrollably spiral upwards since the 90s.

“We thus vow not only to ensure the end of the Arroyo government by June 30, but also to prevent an Aquino presidency as it would only be more of the same policies of the current administration.”###