Workers, peasants, urban poor, religious people, academe representatives, and students, among others marched the streets in all black today, carrying empty cooking pans and plates, with a streamer backdrop: Gloria, unti-unti mo kaming pinapatay sa kagutuman at kahirapan! 

Led by the Kilusang Mayo Uno and the Unity For P125 alliance launched early this month, the protesters wore black veils and black placards as they marched silently from Trabaho market along Espana boulevard to Plaza Miranda, where a short program followed after. 

KMU Chairperson Elmer Labog said "the Arroyo regime is a murderer of the people. Her continued refusal to regulate prices, to scrap the VAT on oil and power, and to allow substantial wage increase are gradually killing more and more of us." 

Labog slammed the regime further for ruling out the possibility of any wage hike based on Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita's recent pronouncement, which echoes DOLE Secretary Marianito Roque's statement that no wage adjustment is likely despite worsening conditions. 

"Malacanang didn't even had the pretension to care for the people. By shutting off the possibility of a wage hike, they have only incited further unrest.

"Big companies are profiteering much from the price spikes, as government also corrupts more from the VAT passed on to the people. The people who sweat for the riches they steal and reap deserve to get much more of what is granted by their current wages," Labog added.

"Majority are pushed further at the losing end of this economic turmoil. This regime has proven to be fatal to us. It shall await a death blow from the people's wrath." ###