A Church-led equivalent of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement will launch its formal manifest this coming week, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said Saturday.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo is the convenor of
"Kilusang 99%," a social reform movement making government accountable
for the majority's welfare.
“In the Philippines, we find similar restlessness brewing among
our sectoral group… this rising tide of discontent, coupled by the
indifference of the general public, is substance for insurgency which
the Church hopes to stem,” Pabillo said.
The movement aims to make the poor "the center of development" and government "accountable for the welfare of the majority.”
Pabillo chairs the CBCP's National Secretariat for Social Action -Justice and Peace.
However, Pabillo clarified the Philippine version of the "Occupy"
movement is not directed at the Aquino administration or any particular
leader.
Instead, he said it is mainly addressed at the well-entrenched
financial system that has bred social injustice, economic imbalance,
corporate greed and the darkest side of capitalism.
“What is happening now is that the government is just at the
backseat and they just let the market, which seeks profit and not the
common good, dictate,” he said.
“We really need to talk before it’s too late. We don’t want
violence and rebellion but we just want the people who are mostly
affected by these problems to be heard,” he added.
Sectors covered by the K99% include labor groups, farmers and
fisherfolk organizations, the indigenous peoples and the urban poor.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, inspired by the Arab Spring, started last September 17 at the financial district of New York City.
It has so far spread to around 1,500 cities globally to expose how
the richest one percent of people are writing the rules of an “unfair”
global economy.
“This is really a wakeup call for the government and the business sector to do something for the common good,” Pabillo said. — LBG, GMA News
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