Immediate Release
July 25, 2005

For reference:
Dr. Robyn Rodriguez and Berna Ellorin
Spokespeople
NY Coalition for Gloria’s Ouster (N.Y.C. 4 G.L.O.)
Phone: 646-479-1605
email: nychrp @ yahoo.com


NY FILIPINOS STAGE PEOPLE’S SONA IN QUEENS CALLING FOR GMA’S OUSTER

QUEENS -- The sight of a giant toilet bowl carrying the sign “Plunge 
Gloria” with an actress inside portraying Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 
her cellphone being pushed down with toilet plungers caught the attention 
of the Filipino-American community Sunday, June 24 th at the corner of 
69th street and Roosevelt Avenue, Queens, in New York City.
 
With Filipinos and solidarity friends and allies, the New York 
Coalition for Gloria’s Ouster (NYC 4 GLO) called for the immediate resignation or 
ouster of Philippine President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo. The NY action 
was held simultaneously with a national protest action culminating in 
Manila in light of the President’s scheduled State of the Nation 
Address (SONA).

“We are here tonight because we want Gloria to feel the vehement 
condemnation and dismay over her administration goes as far and wide as 
Filipinos in New York City,” stated Arcy Yuson of Anakbayan - NY/NJ 
chapter and a convening member of NYC 4 GLO.

The colorful protest also included a giant “Lie-Sol” spray in 
“Glo-berry” scent that was boasted as a “disinformational spray that 
kills odors and others, including priests, journalists, lawyers, and 
activists” alongside the giant toilet bowl. The program’s highlight was 
the symbolic flushing and plunging of an actress dressed as Arroyo 
inside the giant toilet bowl while the crowd chanted a clogging sound 
“glug, glug, glug!” then followed by the flushing sound.
 
Among the other highlights was a singing of a popular song “Glory 
Allelujah” with ditty lyrics about Gloria’s cheating and calling for 
her 
resignation; the other song was to the tune of another popular dance 
song “Ocho Ocho.” The protest was also held simultaneously with 
Anti-Arroyo protests in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The International Action Center (IAC) also delivered a solidarity 
statement after Shirley Cuyugan-O’Brien a former Philippine university 
professor, and Community Action Committee member of the Philippine 
Forum 
read a poem she wrote condemning Gloria Arroyo’s regime.

“Filipinos in New York and all over the world know this is an 
administration with a lot of blood on it’s hands,” stated Gary Labad of 
the New York Committee for the Human Rights in the Philippines 
(NYCHRP)-BAYANusa, and a co-convenor of the NY Coalition. “From the 
blood of human rights advocates, lawyers and priests, to the blood of 
migrant workers. She has used the brutal hand of the military to enact 
political repression in the form of rampant political killing and 
escalating human rights violations. She continues to stay subservient  
to and hence drag our disadvantaged kababayan to the throes of Bush’s 
war on terror, while driving the economy down the path of fiscal 
crisis.”

Labad added  that Arroyo has remained silent on the most burning issues 
still marginalizing Filipino-Americans, “namely post-9/11 immigrant 
scapegoating and racial profiling. Where was Gloria when over 300 
airport screeners were unjustly laid off from airports in California? 
Where has she been on the issue of unjust detention and deportation of 
undocumented Filipino immigrants? And where has she been on the issue 
of 
WWII veterans who up till now are still struggling for their
equity and benefits? She is failing Filipinos in the US much as she has 
failed Filipinos in the Philippines.”

Both the NY Coalition for Gloria’s Ouster and BAYANusa expressed 
continuous actions in New York calling for Gloria’s removal will remain 
as long as she remains seated. For more information on the NY Coalition 
for Gloria's Ouster (NYC 4 GLO) and the NY Committee for Human Rights 
in 
the Philippines, email Dr. Robyn Rodriguez at nychrp@yahoo.com or call 
646.479.1605 ###