In his third SONA, Marcos Jr once again failed to address the plight of thousands of jeepney drivers and small operators being displaced by his regime’s public transport modernization program.
His transport policies have always prioritized big-ticket infrastructure projects injected with massive foreign debt and only serving as milking cow for his cronies salivating to line their pockets through privatizing and corporatizing public utilities and services.
Jeepney drivers, informal workers, and the working-class commuting public have always been neglected in Marcos Jr’s transport policies.
This SONA exposes this regime for what it truly is: that the Marcos Jr regime is servile to the interests of the US and foreign capitalists. It denies the poor vital social services while prioritizing payments for onerous debts cherry-coated as “development programs”. It refuses to raise wages to family living standards. It massacres jeepney drivers and operators’ livelihoods. It is deaf to the demand for a progressive, nationalist, and pro-people public transport system. It bleeds the people dry with one neoliberal measure after another.
The list goes on and on.