Youth group gives PNoy ‘resign cake’ for his 55th birthday

President Benigno Aquino III, who is celebrating his 55th birthday on Sunday, got a "mock resignation cake" from members of a youth group who trooped to Mendiola near Malacañang on Sunday morning.

"On his 55th birthday, the only wish the Filipino youth have for Mr. birthday boy Aquino is for him to resign. The Filipino youth had enough of his US puppet, anti-people, and corrupt regime," Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said in a statement.

Members of the youth group trooped to Mendiola carrying a mock resignation cake.

Anakbayan also said the President's address last Friday "received a lot of flak from the viewers, because Aquino did not mention his role in the Mamasapano encounter."

Forty-four members of the PNP's Special Action Force were killed in a clash Mamasapano town in Maguindanao last January 25.

"At 55, Aquino is old enough to know that he is responsible for the Mamasapano encounter. He was there [at] the command center when the encounter happened, yet he continues to dodge  accountability for the [incident]," Crisostomo said.    ^{Photo by Mao dela Cruz}

Aquino, in a televised address last Friday, took responsibility for the deaths of 44 police commandos.

"Responsibilidad ko po sila, kasama ang buong puwersa ng SAF sa operasyong ito, pati na ang mga nagligtas sa kanila na nalagay din sa panganib ang buhay," he said.

PNP-SAF members went to a Moro Islamic Liberation Front-controlled area in Mamasapano to serve arrest warrants to the Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino bomb maker Abdulbasit Usman. Police claimed Marwan was killed in the raid while Usman managed to escape.

Pray for PNoy

Meanwhile, Malacañang on Sunday asked Filipinos to pray for the president for his birthday.

"We ask the Filipino people to always pray for him. One of the things that we’ve always asked—and I’ve always asked privately to those friends of ours, not only to our friends from the religious sector—is to always pray for the President because malaking bagay sa ating Pangulo na alam niyang ipinagdarasal siya ng ating mga kababayan," Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said on government-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

"Siguro ang gift natin kay Pangulong Aquino is that we abide and we remember the reforms that he has started kasi these reforms will go beyond 2016. So we ask the Filipino people to trust in the President, to trust in the reforms that he has made, and he will not let us down. He will always do the right thing," he said.

Last year, militant groups staged a "birthday protest" for Aquino's 54th birthday. — Kathryn Mae Tubadeza/LBG, GMA News