Youth walks out of their classes in protest against Noynoy

The youth, instrumental in the election of President Benigno Aquino III last year, is staging a walkout. Today marks Aquino's first year in office, and thousands of youth members throughout the country are protesting. Fact is, their frustration has reached fever pitch, they graded Aquino a falling mark for doing nothing, absolutely nothing.


House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman says it was a monumental mistake electing Aquino into power while retired archbishop Oscar Cruz laments that the country remains the same under a so-called transformative leader such as Noynoy.

“In the past, the Philippines was second only to Japan. But if Fourth World countries exist, then we could be one of them,” he said in jest.Cruz said democracy and poverty could not “go hand in hand.”“How can [a country] be free if [its people] have nothing to eat? How can [a country] be free if its people do not have shelters to stay in?” he said.Asked what could be the possible solutions to these problems, Cruz mentioned three elements of effective leadership—integrity, competence and diligence.

Unfortunately, he said, none of the present and past two administrations had all three: Mr. Aquino’s had integrity but not competence and diligence; Joseph Estrada’s had diligence but not competence and integrity; and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s had competence and diligence but not integrity.

Major business groups also marked Noynoy a passing grade, while Migrante, an OFW group gave Noynoy a failing grade for doing absolutely nothing in taking care of the country's modern heroes.