AFTER A year, all the promises of the thieves of the victory of people power seem to crumble like a sandcastle. The true colors of the self-proclaimed messiahs as led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are being gradually unveiled.

This is much especially evident and felt by the youth, the sector that is known to be the biggest stakeholder of Edsa 2.

If there is a sector that almost fully saw hope on this administration, it is the youth sector. But now, this hope is dim and gloomy. Gloria is never the light at the end of the tunnel.

In her first year in office, Gloria proves she is not worthy to be the beneficiary of an uprising that ousted a corrupt president. And this manifests with the right-to-left corruption scandals that continually haunt not just the President but also the First Gentleman.

While a broad section of the youth trooped to People Power 2 because of tuition increases and education budget cut, this double-whammy never stopped in wrecking on our right to education. And the case of Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the so-called poor man's university, is a clear manifestation of a worse situation under this regime. During the tine of Erap, PUP merely suffered from a budget cut. But during the Arroyo administration, PUP suffered an insult to injury after losing its land case against a private firm!

Still, some sections may assert that a year is too short for us to judge the Arroyo administration. Thus, we say to thern, if there is any materialization of GMA's plan for this year, it is our 2002 national budget.

But as projected in the General Appropriations Act of 2002, the combined budget of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports and the state colleges and universities numbers to only about P190 Billion as compared to debt servicing: a whopping P359 billion!

This mere P190 Billion easiily computes to only P 15.35 a day for Filipinos in the 5 to 24 age bracket. This P15 is even a peso short of a common student's daily transportation expenses!

It's time for us to counterstrike. The youth is very much disgruntled with what have happened to what we have fought for. The Arroyo administration is a miscarriage. Another people power must be borne of the masses' clamor for meaningful social change not just a change on the face of the oppressor.

It is not enough to bring GMA to Row 4. We were duped. And we must take the power back to people.

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Page Reyes is the spokesperson of Sanlakas-Youth.

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