While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. trumpeted yet again the “Bagong Pilipinas” brand of his administration in his third State of the Nation Address inside Batasang Pambansa, activists and groups from different sectors marched along Commonwealth Avenue and hollered their protests and calls on the Marcos government during this year’s #SONA2024 protest Monday, July 22.
In the 2024 #SONAngBayan, the demonstrators stressed the hollowness of Marcos’ Bagong Pilipinas amid worsening economic and agricultural crisis, exacerbating human rights situation, and rising geopolitical conflict in the West Philippine Sea.
They also denounced the deepening schism between the Marcos and Duterte political factions—as evident in recent statements from Malacañang, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, and their camps—amidst the crises endured by the Filipino people.
Among the highlights of this year’s protest were condemnations of the Marcos administration’s “anti-farmer” agricultural policies, the continuing spate of human rights abuses under his watch and of the government’s heavily pro-American foreign policy, be it in the West Philippine Sea context or in domestic affairs.
The protesters also aired demands for higher state subsidy and budget for state education and public health, for substantial wage increase, and for the Marcos government to hold former President Rodrigo Duterte and his previous regime accountable for the myriad atrocities he had committed as president. — text by Karl Patrick Suyat