09.19.07
GABNet, Ugnayan and Damayan call for Philippine people’s solidarity
As part of the International Day of Action Against Political Persecution and Repression, we invite you to a cultural program and vigil to commemorate the victims of Philippine Dictator Ferdinand Marcos on the eve of the 35th Anniversary of his declaration of Martial Law…
BALIKWAS*
* balikwas: v. to turn suddenly to the opposite side, to suddenly rise from a lying position.
Decriminalizing Political Dissent and Asserting Our Right to Our Bodies, Livelihood and Liberation
When: Friday, September 21, 2007
Time: Gather at 4:30pm, Vigil until 6:30 pm
Where: In front of the Philippine Consulate
556 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10036
Directions: 7 train to 5th Avenue-Bryant Park, F/V/D/B to 47-50 Rockefeller Center. Walk to 5th Avenue between 45th & 46th Street
What: Participatory street theater, cultural performances, solidarity statements
**** Wear black and bring images to show the repression/resistance during Martial Law 35 years ago and the on-going crisis today. ****
September 21, 2007 marks the 35th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. During his 14 years of US-backed dictatorship, Marcos placed 120,000 Filipino men and women in arbitrary arrests and detention, committed 1,500 extrajudicial executions of activists and perpetrated 769 forced disappearances. Marcos was ousted by the People Power of 1986.
Today, the Filipino people are under another reign of terror. With the same shameless attempt to cling to power and with the same support from the US, Philippine de facto president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) has cracked down on political dissenters.
There have been 866 victims of political assassinations in the Philippines since GMA took office in 2001. Her government has become one of the cruelest perpetrators of violence against women activists. Filipina women are being beaten and tortured, abducted and executed–76 women have been assassinated, 29 disappeared, and 22 imprisoned for political work. Filipino students and the youth are not immune to such brutality–76 youths have been killed, 54 of whom were minors. The latter includes 9-year old Grecil Galacio, whom the Philippine military shot dead on March 31, 2007 for being a “communist insurgent.”
The rate of terror that GMA has inflicted in her six years in office has now surpassed that of the entire 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship.
GMA’s absolute boldness can only be attributed to the support of the US, who considers her government as its closest ally in Asia for the so called “war on terror.” With the US $30 million military aid to the Philippines, GMA has enacted one repressive policy after another: Calibrated Preemptive Response in 2005; martial-law like Presidential Proclamation 1017 in 2006; and the Human Security Act of 2007. All are designed to give GMA and her military the power and legal basis to persecute and repress those who expose and oppose her anti-people, anti-women rule. Her latest effort is to extend her reach beyond the Philippine borders, arresting and persecuting Filipinos abroad. This is exemplified by the arrest of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, beloved leader of the Philippine people who has committed his life to working for lasting peace in his homeland.
Moreover, just as Marcos bled the country dry to enrich his personal coffers, GMA’s economic policies, which only serve to enrich multinational companies and to expand the US empire, has led to the plunder and degradation of Philippine resources and to a hemorrhage of migration. More than a million Overseas Filipino Workers, enough to fill six 747s per day, are projected to leave the Philippines in 2007, 70% of those migrating are women. More than 8 million Filipinos have been forced to migrate abroad to escape the economic and political crisis in the Philippines. Abroad, majority of the overseas Filipinos become sources of cheap labor for the host country and are vulnerable to systemic racism and continue to be impacted by the worsening conditions in the Philippine homeland.
JOIN US on Friday, September 21, 2007. Stand up for human rights, for your right to expose and oppose corruption and human rights violations. In solidarity with the people of the Philippines, stand up and oppose US interference in Philippine affairs, demand justice for the victims and survivors of state violence. For us in the US, we must demand accountability from the government that, in our name, has wreaked havoc and continues to wreak havoc around the world.
Never Again to Martial Law!
Makibaka! Huwag Matakot! (Struggle! Don’t Be Afraid!)
The People United, Will Never Be Defeated!
Long Live International Solidarity!
To volunteer, participate or for more information please contact us:
DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association (contact@damayanmigrants.org |(212.564.6057)
Gabriela Network NY/NJ (gabnet@gabnet.org |(212.592.3507)
Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan / Linking the Children of the Motherland (ugnayan_nyc@yahoo.com)