Youth and students led by the League of Filipino Students, ANAKBAYAN, Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, KARATULA, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, and the National Union of Students of the Philippines joined migrants, women, urban poor and health workers, and marched to the House of Representatives today to protest Benigno Aquino III’s proposed 2012 National Budget as part of the National Day of Action against Budget Cuts on Education and Social services.

“If the Aquino government and its cohorts push for Cha-Cha, it can expect thousands of youth and Filipinos to flood the streets in protest. We refuse to be merely employees and consumers in our own country. The Filipino people know better and have protested and stopped any move to approve 100% foreign ownership ever since. No amount of sugar-coated propaganda can lead us to thinking that this cha-cha is different from the rest!”