Militant youth in Zamboanga commemorate the 43rd anniversary

of the Jabidah Massacre where 68 people were killed

 

Western Mindanao State University

Zamboanga City

 

March 18, 2011 Posted: May 22, 2011

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Photos courtesy of LFS Zamboanga City
           
     
     
     

 

News Release

March 18, 2011

 

On the 43rd Anniversary of Jabidah Massacre,

Youth urges PNOY to defend human rights


 

Zamboanga City – More than 200 of militant youth and students here hold a protest action and candle-lighting outside Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) today to commemorate the 43rd Anniversary of the dreadful Jabidah Massacre.

 

“This massacre is one of the darkest parts of our history and, until now, justice has not yet been served,” said Anakbayan Zamboanga City Spokesperson Mark Valdez.

 

Jabidah Massacre happened in Corregidor [Bataan] on 1968 which killed 68 Moro soldiers. One survivor, Jibin Arula (now deceased) was able to escape, testified and exposed the act of terror being conducted by the Marcos Regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) but the government denied and tagged Arula’s statement as a false accusation.

 

Through OPlan Merdeka, the government was in an intensive recruitment for new soldiers to be used as front force against Malaysia to regain the Territory of Sabbah in 1963.

 

No justice, no peace, no progress

 

Emile Octavio, WMSU WMSU College of Social Work and Community Development – College Student Board (CSWCD – CSB) Governor said “As students of Social Work and Community Development, we express our strongest disappointment to these misdoings.”

 

“Where is now the democracy? The government should be in the forefront in upholding the interest and democratic rights of its citizens, “Octavio added.

 

“How can there be development and national progress if the government is not for it? Societal progress can only exist if peace is attained. The current uprisings, whether armed or unarmed, root from economic, political, social and cultural injustices,” the student leader added.

 

To PNoy: ‘Are the people your bosses?’

 

Anti-imperialist and nationalist League of Filipino Students (LFS) challenges the current regime to take actions amid the soaring numbers of human rights violations. “The Aquino government promised an end in the culture of impunity and assured national development. Where is it now?” LFS Zamboanga City Spokesperson James Saguino said.

 

For 8 months in the presidential post, there have been almost 50 cases of extrajudicial killings and more than a hundred documented harassments and other forms of human rights violations.

 

Saguino further explained “This means that, in his first 8 months, one to two activists are being killed every week – worse than that of Arroyo.”

 

The student leader explained that it is very saddening to observe that the government is not serious in doing its responsibility in protecting the people and their interest, and some occurrences of human rights violations are even perpetrated by the government itself.

 

“Arroyo’s OPlan Bantay Laya I and II had killed more than a thousand of political activists. Today, Aquino’s new counterinsurgency program OPlan Bayanihan will only tolerate human rights violations,” he added.

 

Saguino said “Today, as we commemorate the 43rd Anniversary of Jabidah Massacre, we call on Noynoy Aquino to stick to what he promised. We demand justice to all victims of human rights violations like that of Jabidah, Maguindanao and Hacienda Luisita Massacres.”

 

“And in every time you [Aquino] failed to do your tasks, the people will wage stronger gripe to assert meaningful change. The struggle of the youth and the people will upsurge to attain genuine justice and peace towards national democracy and progress,” Saguino said as the activity ended.

 

The activity was spearheaded by the Zamboanga City chapters of League of Filipino Students (LFS), ANAKBAYAN, Kabataan Partylist, WMSU University Student Council (USC), WMSU College of Science and Mathematics – CSB (CSM – CSB) and WMSU CSWCD – CSB.#


 

Reference:

 

JAMES SAGUINO

LFS Zamboanga City Spokesperson

jamessaguino@gmx.ph

09158052372

 

 
     
     
           
     
     
     
           
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Justice for the victims of the Jabidah massacre!
Friday, 18 March 2011
 

Advance the Moro people's struggle for genuine self-determination!
By JORGE "Ka Oris" MADLOS
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao
 

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines - Mindanao joins our brethren Moro and the rest of the Filipino people in remembering the mass execution on 18 March 1968 of young Moro and non-Moro military recruits trained for then dictator Ferdinand Marcos' mad ambition to invade the island of Sabah, Malaysia, known today as the infamous Jabidah massacre.
 

This slaughter of Moro soldier-trainees who were led to believe that obedience to the whim of a dictator amounted to "nationalism" was the precursor of the Moro people's revolutionary struggle that sparked the creation of its revolutionary armed force, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and, later, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
 

In commemorating this tragedy, the NDFP-Mindanao reiterates its commitment to the Bangsamoro struggle for their right to genuine self-determination. This struggle has prompted the Moro people to wage a revolutionary war against all previous and current reactionary regimes.
The Marcos regime desperately swept evidence implicating officials from upper echelons under the rug through a 'cover-up,' allowing the main perpetrators of this grisly crime against Moro sons to go unpunished. Today, the 'massacre' of the Moro people continues with the outright denial of their sovereign right to self-determination.
 

After Marcos, the reactionary regimes that followed flayed the Moro people, particularly in Mindanao, with successive military campaigns of genocidal proportions. The Estrada regime, aided by the US imperialist, in 2000 launched one of the most vicious attacks against the MILF and the Moro people with Oplan Makabayan, destroying entire Moro villages in both Central and Southern Mindanao.

 

 

Under the guise of 'counter-terrorism,' the US-Arroyo regime orchestrated vile attacks, from 2001 to 2010, against the Moro people and their revolutionary forces through Oplan Bantay Laya. Today, Benigno Aquino III has launched a new military campaign tagged as Oplan Bayanihan, a US Counter Insurgency-inspired military campaign that hides behind the facade of 'peace and development.'

 

It is positive that the peace talks between the MILF and the GPH (Government of the Philippines), the latest formal meeting of which ran from February 9 to10, is making headway. With guarded optimism, however, the MILF must learn from past lessons and resist being drawn into capitulating to the GPH.
 

The MILF and the entire Moro people must now more than ever remain steadfast to their revolutionary struggle alongside the people's struggles for national liberation and democracy against long-standing monarchical and fascist regimes in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen.
 

Thus, in continuing the fight for justice for the victims of the Jabidah massacre, we call on the MILF to work with unrelenting resolve toward uniting the Moro people to a more vigorous revolutionary struggle for the right to self determination. Continue to resist machinations and deceptions of the reactionary government and its US imperialist master to have the MILF revolutionary forces and the Moro people to bow to its dictates and end up capitulating to it.
We also urge the non-Lumad and non-Moro population in Mindanao and the whole Filipino people to better understand and support our Moro brethren in their just struggle, and refuse being misled by both sectarian and chauvinist mindset that run prejudicial to the Bangsamoro cause.

 

 

 

 

YouTube - Philippines marks massacre anniversary

 

 

26 Mar 2009 ... Four decades later, an incident known as the Jabidah massacre,

 

continues to haunt the Philippines. No-one is sure how many trainee soldiers, ...

 

 
           
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