[asia-apec 1430] BAYAN HITS IMF-WB FOR RP'S WOES, HOLDS RALLY IN FRONT OF CENTRAL BANK

[BAYAN]

MEDIA RELEASE
April 17, 2000


As protests hit IMF-WB in Washington D.C.
BAYAN HITS IMF-WB FOR RP'S WOES, HOLDS RALLY IN FRONT OF CENTRAL BANK

MANILA -- In a mass action coinciding with the big anti-IMF-WB protests in
Washington, D.C., Bayan members picketed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas this
morning to denounce the Estrada regime's "connivance" with the country's
foreign creditors in foisting new taxes, selling strategic state assets like
the Napocor and further selling out the economy to big foreign interests.

Bayan also condemned the arrest of at least 700 in Washington D.C. on the eve
of massive protests against the IMF-WB’s “anti- poor and pro-imperialist
economic policies.”

“We want the IMF-WB out of the Philippines just as we want Estrada out of
Malacanang,” Bayan Secretary General Teodoro Casiño said before hundreds of
protesters at the Central Bank headquarters in Manila.

“It is no coincidence that several controversial measures like the Road User’s
Tax, the Omnibus Power Bill and the New Securities Act were passed separately
by Congress while the IMF review team was in Manila,” he said, adding that
these measures have long been demanded by the IMF.

He called the $1.38 billion IMF-led loan package tied to the passage of the
Omnibus Power Bill “the biggest bribe of all, compared to the P500,000 each
Congressman got for passing the bill.”

Aside from the privatization of Napocor, Casiño said the Estrada government
also promised to the IMF team it would rush the sale of government shares in
the Philippine National Bank and Manila Electric Company, the privatization of
the National Food Authority, the “corporatization” of 11 state hospitals. It
further pledged to impose drastic cuts in public spending.

“The government is consciously, blindly and lustily following all these IMF
impositions to the obvious detriment of the common folk,” Casiño said.

“This not only shows how good Estrada is as a stooge of the IMF-WB and as the
director of economic chaos in the Philippines,” said the Bayan leader.

Casiño warned that bigger protests were in store if the Estrada government
insisted on selling vital state assets and imposing new taxes.

Last month, transport groups launched massive strikes to protest the proposed
Road User’s Tax.

He blamed the Estrada government and the IMF-WB for coming out with
contradictory economic measures like cutting tariffs and paying fraudulent
debts at a time when the government is starved for funds. 

“Instead of selling the national patrimony at bargain basement prices and
creating new taxes, the government should raise tariffs and stop paying loans
especially those made during the Marcos dictatorship,” Casiño said.

This morning’s protesters called for the immediate scrapping of the Estrada
government’s deregulation, liberalization and privatization policies which
they
said has kept the country an agrarian, backward and debt and import-dependent
nation. ###