As a call for justice and accountability, the community of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) in Quezon City has been urged to join the Trillion Peso March rally against corruption on November 30.
Over two months since the first anti-corruption rally of the Trillion Peso March movement, another protest will be held at the Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue People Power Monument in Quezon City amid probes into corruption in government infrastructure projects where several lawmakers and government officials are implicated.
‘The Ateneo de Manila, through the Mission Integration Center, invites all Ateneo students, employees, and alumni to join the Trillion Peso March Movement in a peaceful rally against corruption and political dynasties,’ the university wrote in its official Facebook page.
‘Let us continue to live out our Ignatian mission: to be persons for and with others, to speak truth to power, and to stand for justice and accountability,’ it added.
The Ateneo community is then encouraged to wear white during the rally. The university said the assembly time is 7:15 a.m. at Zen Garden (Quad 1), College Complex, Loyola Heights campus, while departure from the university is at 8 a.m.
Registration details can be accessed through this link. The university said that registrations, which will be accepted until Thursday, 8 p.m., will help in the coordination of the community in the demonstration.
In a press conference on Monday, Kidapawan Bishop Colin Bagaforo said that the rally’s advocacy ‘is not to overthrow our current elected officials’ but to ‘imprison, expose, and return those who stole from corruption.’
Bagaforo also said that the movement is not supporting any calls for ‘military junta or revolutionary government’ or other efforts to topple the government as they ‘adhere to the call of the Constitution.’
Months after investigations were launched in relation to the flood control scandals in the country, the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has issued arrest warrants against former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, and 15 others from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Sunwest Corporation over a substandard P289.5-million river dike project in Oriental Mindoro.
On Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that eight individuals linked to the river dike anomaly have been taken into custody by the authorities. Marcos noted that two others are set to surrender before the government, while seven, including Co, remain at large.
In a separate press conference, the Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, and the DPWH showed mugshots identifying the suspects in custody as:
Dennis Pelo Abagon (OIC-Chief, Quality Assurance and Hydrology Division; Regular Member of the Bidding and Awards Committee, now OIC-Chief, Planning and Design Division, DPWH Region IV-B)
Gerald Pacanan (Regional Director, DPWH – Region IV-B)
Gene Ryan Alurin Altea (Assistant Regional Director, DPWH Region IV-B, now DPWH Bureau of Maintenance Director)
Ruben Delos Santos Santos Jr. (Assistant Regional Director, DPWH Region IV-B)
Dominic Gregorio Serrano (Chief, Construction Division, DPWH Region IV-B)
Juliet Cabungan Calvo (Chief, Maintenance Division, DPWH Region IV-B)
Felisardo Sevare Casuno (Project Engineer III, DPWH Region IV-B)
Lerma Dotado Cayco (Accountant IV, BAC, DPWH Region IV-B)