MANILA, Philippines – After the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board announced the impending increase of minimum fare from P8 to P10, netizens on Twitter decried the continuous increase in the price of basic services and commodities.
On Thursday night, October 19, #HirapMagmahal and #PresyoIbaba trended on Twitter as Filipino netizens protested online the rising prices, blaming the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law and surging inflation. (READ: EXPLAINER: How the tax reform law affects Filipino consumers)
The "Twitter rally" was organized by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). The nationwide alliance of school publications also claimed that the supposed "Red October" plot to bring down the Duterte administration is a mere tactic by government officials to divert public attention away from current economic woes.
{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As Duterte continues to downplay the impact of his anti-people policies by diverting everyone’s attention towards the bogus Red October plot, the prices of commodities incessantly spring upward further burdening the poor. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HirapMagmahal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HirapMagmahal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PresyoIbaba?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PresyoIbaba</a></p>— CEGP (@CEGPhils) <a href="https://twitter.com/CEGPhils/status/1052537615176556544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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"As Duterte continues to downplay the impact of his anti-people policies by diverting everyone’s attention towards the bogus Red October plot, the prices of commodities incessantly spring upward, further burdening the poor," CEGP said in a tweet.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier said that 18 schools were part of the "Red October" plot by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to destabilize the government. Later on, Albayade said that the plot may unfold in December. (READ: [OPINION] The hunt for ‘Red October’)
Below are some of the tweets:
{source}<a class="twitter-timeline" data-partner="tweetdeck" href="https://twitter.com/MovePH/timelines/1052886315446882306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HirapMagmahal - Curated tweets by MovePH</a> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}
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