Members of several groups here participate in the Cebu People’s Summit in Taboan Sports Complex in Cebu City on July 24, 2022.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Marginalized groups are calling on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to give priority to issues faced by the sector in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday July 25.
This was after marginalized groups pointed this out in today’s (July 24) Cebu People’s Summit at the Taboan Sports Complex in Cebu City where several of the groups met to discuss their issues and concerns.
In the summit, they cited that the administration’s attention to marginalized groups had remained insufficient and they wanted this addressed in the SONA of President Bongbong Marcos.
“Nagkagrabe hinuon ang atoang krisis ug mas gipagrabi pa kini tungod sa paglimod sa atoang administrasyon ini nga kalisod…Tungod sa denialism, labi na sa kasamtangan nga administrasyon, natabunan ang tiunay nga issue nga giatubang sa katawhan,” said Regletto Aldrich Imbong, president of All UP Academic Employees Union.
(Our crisis has worsened and this has worsened because of the denial of the administration of this crisis…Because of denialism, especially of the new administration, the true issue that the public is facing has been covered [by other issues].)
The groups said that the summit was held a day before the SONA on July 25 so that they could show the real situation of the marginalized sector to the administration.
“Aron mapadayag sa nagkalain-lain nga organisasyon ug sektor ang tiunay nga kahimtang sa ilang economic ug social nga situation. Kining People’s Summit gilunsad ni siya human ang pipila ka mga local organizations nakahimo og ilang kaugalingung pre-summit,” Imbong added.
(So that the different organizations and sectors can show their true economic and social situation. This People’s Summit is organized after several of our local organizations made their own pre-summit.)
Right after collating all the concerns, issues, insights, and grievances from these participating groups, Imbong said that they would submit these to Congress for the latter to create concrete interventions to help alleviate lives and livelihood of the marginalized sector.
Aside from that, Imbong said that they too had various platforms for airing these, including conducting rallies and posting these on their social media platforms.
He said that it was crucial that these marginalized individuals must have a voice so that the administration would have a clearer notion of what is happening at the grassroots.
“Sa ilang kapasidad, kaya nila matan-aw ilang aktwal nga kahimtang ug appropriate nga solutions sa ilang nahiagubang karon. Walay lain nga makapunting sa saktong alternatives o solutions sa marginalized sectors kundi sila mismo,” Imbong said.
(In their capacity, they see the actual situation and the appropriate solutions to the things that they are facing now. Nobody could pinpoint the right alternatives or solutions to the marginalized sectors but they themselves.)
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