San Francisco, USA:

Commemoration of Martial Law and Candle Light Vigil

 

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Condemned for Corruption, Human Rights Violations

and Failing Filipino WWII Veterans During Bay Area Martial Law Anniversary
 

September 25, 2008

 

 

Entitled "Looking Back 36 Years After Martial Law: An Ecumenical Program on Human Rights," the program featured Reverend Dave Rodriguez of the United Methodist Church who spoke about his experience under the dark days of Martial as never-before-seen video footage of interviews with the Desaparecidos, families of those who have been disappeared from Marcos times to those under the U.S.-backed Arroyo regime.
   
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Photos courtesy of BAYAN - USA
           
           

 

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Condemned for Corruption, Human Rights Violations and Failing Filipino WWII Veterans During Bay Area Martial Law Anniversary

SAN FRANCISCO – On Thursday, September 25, 100 people gathered at the St. Patrick's Church to commemorate the 36th anniversary of declaration of Martial Law. While the Philippines suffered under Martial Law from 1972-1986 under then-President Ferdinand Marcos, San Francisco was an active center of the international anti-martial law movement and the site of regular protests against the daily slayings and abductions of those who dared challenge the tyranny of U.S.-backed Marcos regime. Thirty-six years later, the Philippines is widely considered to be under de facto martial law again, as hundreds of social justice advocates, journalists and church leaders have once more fallen victim to abductions and extra-judicial killings. The common denominator linking all of the victims is that they have been outspoken critics against the corruption and repression of the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

Entitled "Looking Back 36 Years After Martial Law: An Ecumenical Program on Human Rights," the program featured Reverend Dave Rodriguez of the United Methodist Church who spoke about his experience under the dark days of Martial as never-before-seen video footage of interviews with the Desaparecidos, families of those who have been disappeared from Marcos times to those under the U.S.-backed Arroyo regime.

Participants signed a petition calling for the release of James Balao of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, the most recent victim of enforced disappearances in the Philippines. Balao has reported being surveilled by people he believed to be military intelligence personnel before he went missing on September 17th. His disappearance is attributed to his staunch advocacy for indigenous people's rights, social justice, and human rights.

Participants also signed postcards addressed to their Congressional representatives urging the withdrawal of U.S. military aid to the Philippines and instead requesting Congress to direct the funds towards Full Equity for Filipino WWII Veterans. Church and community groups were successful last year in passing human rights monitoring language attached to some of U.S. military aid to the Philippines. Immediately after the restrictive language was included in the Foreign Appropriations bill, Arroyo immediately contracted with a Washington D.C. lobby firm for half a million U.S. dollars. When criticized for wasting public funds to try to clean up her human rights record, Arroyo countered by saying that the D.C. lobby firm was hired to advocate for issues important to Filipinos such as Equity for Filipino World War II Veterans.

"Its ironic that it was while Arroyo was back in the U.S. that the Filipino WW II Veterans pension provisions were cut out of H.R. 1315 to the dismay of the whole Filipino community. Arroyo has done nothing for the Filipino Veterans. Her real agenda in repeated coming to the U.S., and its to ask for more U.S. military aid in order to maintain her hold on the Presidency despite her plummeting popularity." Said Rachel Redondiez of the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.

The program honored the martyrs of Martial Law and the over 1000 recent victims of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances with a special performance by Chat and Pendong Abad of the legendary Philippine folk rock band Asin performing Siglo and Batingaw. Following the ecumenical program, the attendees lit candles for the victims of human rights violations and held candle-light vigil outside the church.

The commemoration took place during the same week when Arroyo was in the U.S. for the second time this year. Filipino American community members have criticized Arroyo for bringing an entourage of 71 people on this trip, an amount considered excessive for a country that remains in economic shambles after the devastation of last summer's hurricane, the food crisis, and the intensified conflict and destabilization in Mindanao. The expenses for a contingent of this size are projected to top $1 Million.

Outside the church, speakers from BAYAN USA, and GMAWatch including babae, a Filipino women's organization based in San Francisco, League of Filipino Students—SFSTATE, and AnakBayan- East Bay, condemned Arroyo for her blatant corruption, human rights abuses, and failure to advocate for Filipino WWII Veterans.

For more information: please contact SFCHRP at sfchrp@yahoo. com.
 
     
     
     
     
           
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The program honored the martyrs of Martial Law and the over 1000 recent victims of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances

    
           

 

Press Statement
September 23, 2008

Reference: Berna Ellorin, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA, email: secgen@bayanusa.org

Arroyo Not Welcomed by All Fil-Ams, Lavish US Trip Lends Burden to Already Poor Economy

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, an alliance of over 12 Filipino organizations in the United States, denounces the secret agenda of Philippine Head of State Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for pushing through with her lavish travel junket #2 to the US to attend upcoming 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations in New York starting this week. According to Philippine Secretary of State Eduardo Ermita, Arroyo will be bringing along at least 71 lawmakers, security, and administrative officials along for the ride. The hotel and food expenses alone for this trip would be enough to feed several poor villages in the Philippines, a country that remains in economic shambles after the devastation of last summer's hurricane, the food crisis, the declining Philippine peso pegged to the US dollar, and now the ongoing conflict and destabilization in Mindanao. Moving forward with a US trip of such extreme proportions at this time is unconscionable for any state leader, but yet again Arroyo manages to prove, as with her governance of the Philippines, she is not guided by moral conscience, but rather greed.

It was just last June that Arroyo was in New York with over 50 other Philippine officials charging up a million-dollar tab on the Philippine economy. While Hurricane Frank stormed through the Philippines, killing hundreds and devastating thousands, Arroyo and her entourage continued to wine and dine their way through the posh locations of Manhattan. While the MV Princess of the Stars sank to the bottom of the ocean, Arroyo sank to an all-time low by ignoring the emergency in her country and deciding to stay on the United States, with the objective of meeting top Washington officials to secure more foreign financing for her murderous military officials.

On top of it all, Arroyo remains intent in pursuing millions in US corporate funds with the Philippines' eligibility status for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US government-supervised institute funding state governments abroad under the auspices of good governance and poverty aid. The Philippine government's eligible status for the MCC compact grant continues to escape our comprehension, as the Arroyo government's popularity in the Philippines and with Filipinos abroad is plummeting at a rapid rate. In order to secure their claim to the MCC compact grant for development, Arroyo will travel to the United Nations to boast of fictitious achievements in alleviating poverty, human rights violations, and economic regression.

 

Favoritism from the US government towards the Philippines at this point, as with any foreign financing project of the US, takes it cue from the historically unequal and neocolonial relationship between the big white father of the West and the little brown brother of the East. Through Arroyo's puppet and subservient government, the US government is able to advance it's agenda to expand its control over the abundance of natural resources in the Philippines, starting with the deep oil and gold reserves of Mindanao, as well as fisheries, coral reefs, and the vast forestry throughout the country.The Bush partnership with the Arroyo administration is also vital in the restoration of permanent US military bases in the Philippines, securing unwanted US military stronghold over the region and protecting US corporate interests. The current US-Arroyo campaign of bloody counter-insurgency in the country is another glaring example of this.

Now the Arroyo administration, fully intent on extending it's power past 2010, is poising itself for more US government support from the next elected US presidency. It is becoming more and more clear with every visit to the United States that the Arroyo administration seeks sustenance from its master, just as a parasite seeks nourishment from a host, without benefiting the host, and sometimes killing it. There is absolutely no good that will come from more US financial aid promised to the Arroyo administration. All financial proceeds will surely be channeled to beefing up the operations of Philippine death squads, the pockets of Arroyo's cronies, and securing US military presence in the country. At the same time, US taxpayers, who generate the dollars that become US aid to the Philippines, continue to be deprived of basic social services, including education, housing, and healthcare. This, in the midst of the largest US financial meltdown since the 1920's, should not be the direction our tax dollars take.

We demand that the US government withdraw all financial support to the Arroyo administration, including revoking the Philippines' MCC Compact Eligible status. We demand a review of the decisions and recommendations made to the Philippine government during the 2007 US Senate hearing that examined the trend of extrajudicial killings and enforces abductions that number in the thousands. We demand that Arroyo resign from her office at once, and appeal to the pro-people forces in the Philippine Congress to impeach her. Lastly, we fully support and are one with the popular street movement in the Philippines to peacefully remove Arroyo from her position by extra-constitutional means.

For the sake of motherland, it's natural treasures, it's remittance-sustained economy, and our tax dollars, Arroyo must step down.

WITHDRAW US TAX DOLLARS TO PHILIPPINE DEATH SQUADS!
NO TO PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION!
U.S. OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!
GLORIA, OUT OF THE U.S.!
OUST GLORIA!

 
           

Outside the church, speakers from BAYAN USA, and GMAWatch including babae, a Filipino women's organization based in San Francisco, League of Filipino Students—SFSTATE, and AnakBayan- East Bay, condemned Arroyo for her blatant corruption, human rights abuses, and failure to advocate for Filipino WWII Veterans.

     
           

 

 
 

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