BAYAN-USA contends that the restriction of a token amount of aid will never seriously address the human rights crisis as long as the Visiting Forces agreement remains in place.  After its enactment in 1999, the Visiting Forces Agreement ushered in tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, advisers, and special operatives, who have been accused of engaging in illegal combat operations under the guise of military exercises, a claim substantiated by eyewitness accounts, Philippine military personnel, and U.S. military publications themselves.  Nearly $1 billion worth of military aid and materiel has flowed into the Philippines under the auspices of the Visiting Forces Agreement.  “Withholding $2 Million is like taking away a single bullet from a gunman you’ve armed with a whole arsenal of ammunition,” commented Ellorin.

 

“By maintaining the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Obama administration is guaranteeing that the human rights crisis will continue,” said Ellorin.  “It is criminal that President Obama called Arroyo to pledge his support for the VFA this year and that Senator Inouye requested an increase in military aid to the Philippines next year, when the extrajudicial killings are on the rise and an American citizen, Melissa Roxas, was abducted and tortured by the Philippine military.”

 

“A year ago, the American people voted for change.  When it comes to U.S. policy toward the Philippines, all we’ve gotten is more of the same,” said Ellorin.  “The change we will fight for is an end to U.S. military presence and intervention in the Philippines, the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement, and the complete termination of military aid for the Philippines.” ###

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of two overseas chapters of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN Philippines, BAYAN-USA is an alliance of 14 progressive Filipino organizations in the U.S. representing women, youth, students, scholars and working people.  BAYAN-USA launched a petition site calling for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement that can be accessed at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/. The said petition is addressed to US President Barack Obama and will be presented to him this year.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rhonda Ramiro, BAYAN-USA Secretary General, secgen@bayanusa.org

Filipino-American Alliance Conducts Relief Work in Typhoon-Ravaged Communities

Members Deliver $15K, Medicine and 2,000 Bags of Food to Typhoon Victims

Philippine Congresswoman Liza Maza distributing relief packages

DAGUPAN CITY, PHIILIPPINES– Filipino-Americans under the banner of BAYAN-USA, a US-wide alliance of 14 Filipino organizations, have been actively responding to the needs of the victims of typhoons Ketsana (Ondoy) and Parma (Pepeng) that slammed through the Philippines in the past few weeks killing hundreds and devastating thousands. In addition to conducting on-the-ground emergency relief operations in the Philippines, the alliance reached its projected goal of $15,000 for BALSA (Bayanihan Alay Para Sa Sambayanan), a broad, multi-sectoral disaster relief organization affiliated with its mother alliance, BAYAN Philippines, in addition to gathering dozens of boxes across the US filled with in-kind donations of clothes, food, and medicine.

This week, members of BAYAN-USA traveled to the Philippines to deliver their monetary donations and participate in relief operations. In Dagupan City, Pangasinan, BAYAN-USA joined Congresswoman and Senatorial Candidate Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party and MAKABAYAN Coalition for one day in handing out over 2,000 sacks of food to long lines of families who had been devastated by the typhoon’s destructive force, but met with the inadequate response of the Philippine government in providing relief. Pangansinan, one of the most impacted provinces in the nation, was 80% submerged due to the man-made disaster of the San Roque Dam opening that unleashed more than 8 million cubic meters of water.

“We have seen with our own eyes how the Philippine government has neglected the needs of the typhoon victims at a time of tremendous need for basic necessities like medicine, food, and shelter,” commented Bernadette Ellorin, chair of BAYAN-USA and one of the members of the relief team. “It has been the responsibility of people’s organizations, like BAYAN-USA, to provide the emergency response needed for our families and loved ones back home who are suffering and will continue to suffer from the Arroyo government’s greedy, disaster-creating policies.”

Relief Distribution Plans

In relaying its monetary and in-kind donations, BAYAN-USA expressed distrust over the Arroyo government’s recent directive for all donations from abroad to be coursed only through accredited organizations with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) or face taxation and other types of penalties and fees.

Furthermore, Philippine Consular offices in the U.S. have imposed restrictions on courier services from shipping relief goods collected by organizations whose efforts are not affiliated with the Philippine government. Courier services face high penalty fees should they choose to ship goods from people’s organizations collecting donations such as BAYAN-USA.

“In this time of calamity, it is unconscionable that the Arroyo government sees this as an opportunity to make money off of suffering,” Ellorin added, “especially when its own corruption of the National Disaster Relief Funds to pay for Arroyo’s lavish lifestyle is at the root of this disaster.”

Like other donors from the U.S., BAYAN-USA is calling for the Arroyo government to lift restrictions on goodwill, including the DSWD accreditation requirement and the taxation on relief goods, as it is posing a concrete obstacle to donors to send relief to the Philippines.

“Donors from the U.S. are not responding to the directives because of clear distrust. How can they be assured that their donations will reach their loved ones and the neediest communities back home?” Ellorin questioned. “Donors are choosing to go through alternative routes to circumvent the Arroyo government’s greedy paws.”

With the approaching super-typhoon Lupit expected to hit the Philippines within the next few days, the need for long-term or permanent disaster relief efforts becomes more apparent. “In the face of government corruption and inutility, people’s organizations should develop long-term relief operations to meet the escalating needs of the people to fight off the looming threats of cholera, dengue and other health epidemics as well as widespread hunger and homelessness,” ended Ellorin.

Members of BAYAN-USA and GABRIELA-USA with Congresswoman Liza Maza

For more information on how to donate through BAYAN USA, visit www.bayanusa.org. ###

For Immediate Release

October 1, 2009
Reference: Claudia Alexandra Paras
Chair, Pinay sa Seattle-GABRIELA USA
(206) 859-7525, pinayinfo@gmail.com

Filipino Americans in Seattle Respond to Typhoon Ondoy

Seattle, WA—This past weekend, tropical typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana)
ravaged northern Philippines, causing epic flooding to metropolitan
Manila. Over 240 people have died and nearly 300,000 people are
displaced, unable to return to what, if any, is left of their homes.
Many of those who died were women and children from urban poor and
peasant communities.

Natural disasters like this often have a more devastating effect in
the Philippines because of a number of factors, including
deforestation and poor public infrastructure resulting from government
neglect and corruption. Many communities in Quezon City such as
Tatalon, Bagong Silangan and Commonwealth are devastated. Families
were forced to climb up to their roofs for safety and rescue. In
Bagong Silangan, four houses, with whole families still inside, were
swept away by the raging waters of the river.

This crisis comes only weeks after the Philippine people discovered
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s outrageous expenses, including a
$20,000 dinner, during a recent trip to the US to meet with President
Obama. The United States pledged to support with $50,000 in relief
aid, a scant amount compared to the $30 million spent in military aid
to the Philippines.

Local chapters of Bayan-USA and GABRIELA-USA are part of a national
fundraising effort to get money and supplies directly to the people
most affected by the typhoon. The first round of donations and
supplies are to be sent on Monday, October 5th. Join us this Friday,
October 2nd at 6 pm for “Prayers and Pesos,” a vigil and fundraising
event at the Filipino Community Center at 5740 Martin Luther King Jr.
Way South, Seattle, WA . Organizers will be collecting cash, food and
medical supply donations. A community potluck will be followed by
prayers and poetry, an opportunity for the community to come together
and share how Filipinos and their families have been affected.

This event is sponsored by BAYAN-USA and GABRIELA-USA and is hosted by
the Filipino Community of Seattle. A variety of relief organizations
will be present.

###

*** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY ***

Statement
October 1, 2009

Reference: Rhonda Ramiro, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA, email: secgen@bayanusa.org

GOV'T POLICIES WORSEN "NATURAL" DISASTER
BAYAN USA Statement on Typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana & Arroyo's Response

The worldwide outpouring of aid and support for the over 1.8 million victims of Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) in the Philippines this week leaves Filipinos in the United States reeling with anger in response to the Arroyo government's utter ineptitude in providing adequate disaster relief.

This anger towards the Arroyo administration is justifiable for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which are the Philippine government's evident corruption of billions in national disaster funds in order to fatten up the Presidential international travel budget and subsequent insistence that donations coming from abroad be channeled through government agencies.

But in the case of Ondoy, the Arroyo government's hands have extended past the budget purse-strings and into crafting disaster-prone policies as well.
The vast, heavy floods that swept through Metro-Manila devastating over 319,811 families and killing at least 240 people slammed tons of pressure that left properties in ruins. But contrary to claims of Malacanang, these killer floods did not come solely from unpredictable heavy rainfall and winds, but from deadly landslides originating from the neighboring provinces.

For years, the Philippine government has denied links between mining and logging activity and landslides in order to protect the investments of multi-national corporations (MNC) in the Philippines. But other mining authorities, such as the British Columbia Geological Survey Branch, admit to a direct link between heavy mechanical activity launched by foreign corporations in resource-rich countries like the Philippines and the weakening of bedrock along slopes that can result to slope failure and eventually a fatal landslide. 

In addition to ensuring nothing less than maximum devastation when disasters like Ondoy strike, irregular warming of the Earth's surface caused by greenhouse gas concentrations resulting from dense MNC activity also contribute to the altering of regional climate patterns, such as the generation of typhoons.

Charter Change

While illegal mining and logging continue throughout the Philippines under the Arroyo administration, the Arroyo clique relentlessly campaigns for changes to the 1987 Philippine Constitution that would allow 100% foreign ownership of Philippine territory.  Intensified foreign mining, logging, deforestation, land conversion and marine fishing throughout the Philippines coupled with poor infrastructure will only leave Filipinos vulnerable to more calamities such as Ondoy.
In this time of urgent need for the vast majority of Filipinos impacted by Ondoy, BAYAN USA appeals to supporters around the world to think twice before donating financial support to Philippine government-led initiatives such as those spearheaded by consular offices around the world.

The reason why overseas Filipinos are choosing NOT to remit through government channels is because of the Philippine government's proven and historical track record of taking advantage of monetary donation drives in response to calamities as ample opportunities for graft. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo is one glaring example of this. In fact, to this day, more than Pph 7 billion (USD $280 million) in public funds allocated for post-eruption disaster relief remains unaccounted for.

The Philippine government makes billions in the US dollars every year from the remittances of overseas Filipinos. Let's not give them a chance to make more money off the victims of Ondoy. There are more reliable and credible people organizations both in the United States and in the Philippines, who not only organize communities for social reforms, but are now working tirelessly to divert donations from the government's corrupt hands and bring direct relief to the most impacted areas without any discrimination or bias. Visit www.bayanusa.org or www.bayanihan4ondoy.wordpress.com to learn more about them. ###

from bayanusa.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rhonda Ramiro
Secretary General, BAYAN-USA
secgen@bayanusa.org

Alcover Uses Lies and Slander to Cover-Up Malacañang Abuse of Power and Funds

“Rep. Alcover is only deceiving himself if he thinks that anyone is going to believe his malicious lies and slanderous statements. He should apologize to the Filipino people for wasting their money and time, and issue an immediate retraction of his slanderous statements,” remarked BAYAN-USA Chair Berna Ellorin, in reaction to Representative Pastor Alcover Jr.’s privilege speech to the Philippine House of Representatives on August 17, 2009.

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN-USA, denounced Rep. Alcover’s privilege speech as another pathetic attempt by the Arroyo regime to wash its hands of responsibility for the thousands of state-sponsored human rights violations plaguing the Philippines and to discredit the testimony of torture victim Melissa Roxas. “Melissa Roxas’ strong credibility as a victim of torture, backed unanimously by the Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines, has created a diplomatic nightmare for the Arroyo government. Roxas’ brave pursuit of justice and accountability is expectedly bringing out the witch-hunters in the Arroyo government, namely ANAD Partylist Representative Jun Alcover,” stated Ellorin.

Throughout the speech, Rep. Alcover made baseless claims and stated erroneous information as facts. Such information included Rep. Alcover’s branding of BAYAN-USA as “an organization under the NDF [National Democratic Front] international in the United States.”

“Rep. Alcover is stooping to slander as a means to absolve the Arroyo government of the more than 1,000 cases of extrajudicial killings and over 200 cases each of enforced disappearances and torture—including the most recent case of Melissa Roxas. This is no surprise, given the overwhelmingly credible testimony provided by Melissa,” said Ellorin. “The Arroyo regime has a history of recycling the ‘communist boogeyman’ every time it gets put on the defensive. Rep. Alcover should be reminded that these McCarthyist red-baiting tactics were discredited last century, for their utter failure to do anything but demonize innocent people and make the world less safe for everyone.”

Rep. Alcover also referred repeatedly to a “hate campaign” being waged to shame the government. “Did Rep. Alcover mis-read the reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights watch, which all point to government responsibility for the overwhelming majority of human rights violations committed against innocent Filipinos?” stated Ellorin. “Clearly, the hate campaign being waged is the one that GMA and her supporters have been waging since 2001, against any person courageous enough to speak up for justice and criticize the failed policies of the Arroyo administration.”

“Alcover is abusing his position in the legislature to advance the Philippine military’s agenda within. His red-baiting and inflammatory remarks also serve to undermine the resumption of peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDF, even though the NDF has every right to assert its platform for genuine national freedom and democracy, lasting peace, and a progressive Philippines. Rep. Alcover should spend his time, and the Filipino people’s money, concerning himself with public service for a nation in grave need, and not with bloody, ineffective counter-insurgency tactics.” ended Ellorin.

###

Abuse Charges Persist in Philippines' Fight Against Communists

By CARLOS H. CONDE

MANILA — Melissa Roxas, a 31-year-old artist and writer from Los Angeles, traveled to the Philippines in 2007 to learn more about the country of her birth.

Ms. Roxas moved to the United States when she was 9 years old, and finding out more about the Philippines had been an obsession for her. “I came to the Philippines to learn more about my roots and heritage,” she told the human rights committee of the Philippine Congress last month.

Soon after arriving, she embarked on an “immersion program” with a left-leaning nongovernmental organization, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance), which sent her to impoverished communities in the provinces north of Manila to work on health and sanitation programs. One afternoon in late May, while watching television in a farmer’s home in a village in Tarlac Province, Ms. Roxas and two of her companions were abducted by armed and hooded men who dragged them into a van without a license plate.

For six days, Ms. Roxas says, she was interrogated, drugged, tortured and smothered to near death, with her interrogators trying to force her to admit she was a communist guerrilla. When the interrogators learned that she was an American citizen, she told the committee, the torture lessened. Although she continued to be tortured, her citizenship may have saved Ms. Roxas from death. Her captors later dropped her off at a relative’s house in the capital.

Ms. Roxas’s case was unusual in that she was among the few people who have been freed after being abducted and tortured. It also became highly publicized after it emerged that Ms. Roxas was a U.S. citizen and her lawyers said she would file a suit against the Philippine government in a U.S. court for unlawful kidnapping and assault.

But her case also highlighted something that international and local human rights groups say is all too common in the Philippines: violations of human rights by the military in the name of battling a communist insurgency.

Allegations of human rights violations have hounded the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ever since she came to power in 2001.

According to Karapatan, the largest human rights group in the Philippines, more than 1,000 activists, peasants and civilians have died and thousands more have been tortured or abducted since 2001. Those allegations have been echoed by groups like Human Rights Watch, based in New York, which has accused the government of being engaged in a “dirty war” against leftists.

The United Nations Human Rights Council, among other institutions, investigated several of the cases and found the Philippine military primarily responsible for the actions, attributing them to a counterinsurgency policy called Oplan Bantay Laya, or Operation Freedom Watch, that does not distinguish armed communist combatants from activists who are out in the open.

The United Nations says there has been an improvement in recent years — with a 70 percent decline in the number of killings since February 2007 — partly the result of human rights groups publicizing the problem. But in the first half of this year, 36 activists were killed, according to the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project, a program of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

The military has disputed Ms. Roxas’s account, saying that she fabricated the story of her abduction, despite initial findings by the Commission on Human Rights, an independent constitutional body, that her account was credible. Later, the military went on a counteroffensive, accusing Ms. Roxas of being a member of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a 40-year Maoist insurgency, the longest in Asia. Ms. Roxas has denied being a member of the group.

Leila de Lima, the chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, said at a hearing on the case that “freedom from torture is a nonderogable right” — that even if Ms. Roxas were a communist guerrilla, she should not have been tortured. “Even prisoners of war should not be tortured,” Ms. de Lima said.

Apart from the torture and killing linked to the communist insurgency, the Philippines has also come under fire for other human rights violations.

In May, the United Nations Committee Against Torture said that it was “deeply concerned about the numerous, ongoing, credible and consistent allegations, corroborated by a number of Filipino and international sources, of routine and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody.” The Philippine government told the U.N. committee that “torture or ill-treatment on suspects or detainees is not tolerated or condoned by the Philippine National Police.”

At the same time, the military and its backers have intensified a campaign against groups that the military says are sympathetic to the communists.

Jovito Palparan, a former general who is now a congressman, accused the Commission on Human Rights — whose chairman is appointed by the president and which has been accused by human rights groups in the past of not having been active enough in investigating violations — of backing the leftists.

In remote villages and in the slums of Manila, the military has embarked on a campaign to discredit leftist groups, often gathering residents in communities for viewings of videos where the groups are depicted as communists. The military has also gone into schools to warn students about radical groups out to recruit for the Communist Party.

Lt. Col. Danilo Lucero, the chief of the army’s Civil Military Operations, said in an interview that the military was concentrating on groups that it believed supported the armed New People’s Army.

“They have perfected the art of deception,” Colonel Lucero said. “They have their own political group that basically connects with their armed group.”

But Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of Karapatan, said the counterinsurgency strategy was “disastrous for human rights.”

“What the military does — labeling every dissenter as a communist — is dangerous,” Ms. Enriquez said. “They are in effect justifying the harassment, torture, abduction and even murder of Filipinos whose only crime was to speak out against the problems of society.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13iht-phils.html?_r=2
 

###
 

Dear Friends:

We are pleased to announce the official launch of the Justice for Melissa Roxas Website, sponsored by the Justice for Melissa Roxas Campaign.

Please visit www.justiceformelissa.org for news and information on Melissa's fight for justice and learn how you can help support the campaign!

JUSTICE FOR MELISSA ROXAS!
JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF STATE-SPONSORED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!

In Solidarity,

Anakbayan Seattle

Press Release

Reference: Jeff  Rice, Finance Chair, BAYAN-USA  phone: 206.291.8078

Seattle Filipinos Call for an End to the VFA and Justice for Melissa Roxas
June 2, 2009 – Seattle, WA –BAYAN-USA, an alliance of progressive Filipino American organizations along with other members of the community, held a vigil on May 27 at the Filipino Community Center of Seattle to demand justice for Melissa Roxas, the first Filipina American to be abducted & tortured while engaged in health care and humanitarian work in the Philippines.

Melissa Roxas, an American citizen from Los Angeles, was abducted by suspected Philippine military agents on May 19 in the city of La Paz in the Tarlac province along with her companions, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc.  They were abducted after providing humanitarian relief to impoverished communities.  Melissa’s abductors severely beat and starved her, while accusing her of being a rebel.  “I thought I was going to die there.” Melissa Roxas said as she recounts her ordeal. “They held my feet and my hands down and doubled-up plastic bags were pulled down on my head and face and closed on my neck and I started to suffocate and I could not breathe anymore and I was seeing white and thinking I was going to die.” 

Before the vigil, community members had a discussion on the Visiting Forces Agreement, ratified ten years ago, which enables U.S. forces to utilize the Philippines as a military outpost in the Pacific and continue the U.S. War on Terror by linking with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, providing substantial military aid, weapons and training.  During the vigil, members of the Filipino community of Seattle expressed their disapproval of the VFA by wearing black t-shirts with a logo that read “Junk the VFA!”  Placards surrounded the room honoring Melissa Roxas and her two companions, John Edward Handoc and Juanito Carabeo. 

Donna Denina, member of Pinay sa Seattle states, “It’s a shame that Obama and his administration use the VFA as a means to protect their political and economic interests over the Philippines at the expense of the dignity of our people, and in particular our women.  It’s obvious that the VFA was used as leverage to acquit Lance Corporal Smith nearly 4 years after he was found guilty of raping Nicole.”  Denina goes on to state that “we see that the VFA was successful in protecting the rights of U.S. military servicemen, but what about Melissa? As a Filipina American working to serve the people of the Philippines, myself and many others like me are at risk and I have no faith in our U.S. government to protect my rights as an American citizen if I were to ever travel back home.”

BAYAN-USA’s online petition against the VFA can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow.  The online petition to demand justice for Roxas, Carabeo, and Handoc can be found at http://www.gopetition.com/online/28021.html.  To find out more information on these campaigns, you can find members of BAYAN-USA at the Pagdiriwang Festival at Seattle Center June 6-7, hosting a series of films and performing on stage.  Also, Pinay sa Seattle will host an education discussion on the “Women of the Philippine Revolution” at the Filipino Community Center 5740 MLK Way on June 20^th, 11am-2pm. 

BAYAN-USA is an alliance of progressive Filipino groups in the U.S. representing organizations of students, scholars, women, workers, and youth. As an international chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-Philippines), BAYAN-USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement of the Philippines and as a campaign center for anti-imperialist Filipinos in the U.S.###

 

News Release
29 May 2009

Reference: Jonna Baldres, BAYAN USA North East Co-Coordinator, jonnabebeh@gmail.com


FILIPINO-AMERICANS IN NY SAY "10 YEARS IS ENOUGH! JUNK VFA!"


NEW YORK - BAYAN USA, with its member organizations and allies in the New York/New Jersey area, gathered on May 27 in front of the Philippine Consulate in 5th Avenue to call for an end to the 10-year-long Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a treaty between the Philippine and the United States governments believed by the said alliance to have been detrimental to the Filipino people.

"May 27 marks 10 years of institutionalized atrocities against our people. But in fact, it's not only 10 years, but more than a hundred years, that we have been suffering in the hands of the US imperialist. The Philippine-American war of 1899 had been the blueprint of the US war of aggression, and the human rights violations inflicted upon our people are much worse than ever to this day," Gary Labao of the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) said.  

BAYAN USA also lambasted the Philippine government and demanded its accountability for the abduction of Melissa Roxas, a Filipino-American activist and a member of Habi Arts, a cultural organization and a member organization of BAYAN USA in Los Angeles. Melissa came back to the Philippines in 2007 to work as a full-time health worker and was abducted by who were suspected to be military elements last May 19 in Tarlac with two other companions. Days later, Melissa and her companions were surfaced, but BAYAN USA remains firm in its stand to demand justice for the abducted.

"I personally know Melissa, and I know very well that she does not deserve these acts of monstrosity carried upon her by the Philippine government. This abduction of Melissa and her companions is part of the Philippine government's anti-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya II, to serve its own economic and political interests. And as binded by the VFA, the US also takes part in this crime by funding the military activities and exercises of the Philippine government through the US tax dollars! And the US, now under the leadership of Obama, had just put one of its citizens in danger by letting Melissa get in the hands of these bloody perpetrators!" Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN USA Chairperson, exclaimed in outrage.

Aside from the abduction of Melissa and countless other activists and civilians, the VFA has also resulted to the rape of Filipino women by US military elements. "Vanessa", a 22-year-old Filipina, was victimized by "John Jones," a US Marine and a member of the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) operating in the Philippines under the guise of the Balikatan (translated as "shoulder-to-shoulder") exercises.

"The VFA paved the way for the US to exploit the bodies and the dignity of our fellow Filipinas. After Nicole, another rape victim, Vanessa, has come out but decided not to file a case because she was scared that the Philippine government would only favor the US, just like what happened in the case of Daniel Smith, who was acquitted from charges of raping Nicole. This is a clear indicator that the Filipino people has totally lost its trust in the Philippine government, as it only serves the whims of its master, the US imperialist," said Melanie Dulfo of the New York-based Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE).

Valerie Francisco, Vice Chair of GABRIELA-USA, also added that aside from women, children are also directly being victimized by the VFA, "On February 19, Rafaela Polborido, a 16-month old girl was killed in a province in Bicol, after government soldiers bombed her home with grenades in preparation for the Balikatan exercises. These acts of terrorism against the people, especially children, must be condemned and should not be allowed to continue and prosper!"

Representatives of indigenous organizations who attended the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York City from May 18-29 also joined the protest action. Windel Bolinget of Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA) and Dulphing Ogan of KALUMARAN, also shared stories of cruelty that they have experienced under the Visiting Forces Agreement. From North to South, militarization has been rampant in their communities and their self-determination as indigenous peoples has been disrespected in many circumstances.

Yves Nibungco, Deputy Secretary General of Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, also criticized the Philippine government for spending too much on militarization and the Balikatan exercises instead of providing the Filipino youth with the much-needed books and classrooms.

Allies from International Action Center (IAC), Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) and May 1st Coalition were also present and delivered solidarity messages.

After the action at the Philippine Consulate, the Filipino contingent marched towards the US Armed Forces Recruitment Station in 42nd Street in Times Square while chanting anti-VFA slogans. The whole BAYAN USA and GABRIELA USA contingents staged a die-in right in the middle of the famous New York tourist spot to deliver the message that the Filipino people want the US troops out of the Philippines and that they want the VFA scrapped.

Protest actions led by BAYAN USA were also held in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and teach-ins on the VFA were held in Seattle & San Diego.

For more information: http://www.bayanusa.org

- ### -


More pictures here: http://photobucket.com/junkVFA_27may2009

May 28th, 2009

May 27th, 2009

By the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines

The abduction, captivity, and surfacing of Filipina-American activist Melissa Roxas serves as a due wakeup call to many Filipinos in the United States that no critic of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, even US citizens, is immune to political repression enacted as a means to silence dissent in the Philippines. Melissa Roxas, a human rights advocate in the Philippines, was serving as part of a volunteer medical mission in Tarlac when she was abducted at gunpoint by eight masked men in the afternoon of May 19th. Within 48 hours from the time news of her abduction reached her friends in the United States on May 24th, an international barrage of statements, press releases, television news coverage, and even an online petition addressed to US President Barack Obama was launched, ending with news of Melissa’s surfacing and reunion with her family in Manila.

As of late, we have no details as to Melissa’s physical condition, if her captors harmed her in any way. It is certain though that Melissa’s safety remains at risk as she is most-likely being heavily monitored by her abductors. It also remains up in the air whether or not Melissa will stay in the Philippines to continue her human rights work or will return to Los Angeles, her hometown. Either way the international campaign to seek justice will not end just because she has surfaced. Two of Melissa’s companions on the medical mission, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc, were also abducted with Melissa. While Carabeo and Handoc have both just recently surfaced, their physical conditions remain unknown, we must continue to seek justice for Melissa, Juanito, and John Edward by demanding for an official investigation of the abduction and prosecution of the abductors.

It is safe to presume that Melissa’s US citizenship and the noise made across the Pacific by US citizens– particularly her colleagues in BAYAN USA, an alliance of Filipino social justice organizations across the United States– set Melissa apart from Carabeo and Handoc in their captors’ eyes. But US citizen or not, abduction is abduction, torture is torture, and a human life is a human life. The Roxas/Carabeo/Handoc kidnapping must be seen within the overall context of intensifying political repression in the Philippines. There are hundreds more Melissas in the Philippines today who have yet to surface. Their names include Jonas Burgos, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeno, James Balao and many many more. All were known critics of the policies of the Arroyo administration.

What should alarm Filipinos in the US even more than Melissa’s case is the fact that the Arroyo administration, one that has been internationally chided time and time again for perpetrating rampant human rights violations through the Philippine military, continues to receive a generous military aid package from the US government. In 2007, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston released a scathing report on the Philippines pointing out the Philippine military’s culpability as the main perpetrators of human rights violations. That same year, testimonies by a Philippine church delegation to the US Senate identified a correlation between the rise in human rights violations in the Philippines to an increase in US military aid.

This implies that the death squads and elements of the Philippine military perpetrating these politically-motivated killings and abductions are enabled to do so because of the hard-earned tax dollars from people like us here in the US.

If the power of our voices raised for Melissa and Juanito can contribute to their victorious surfacing, let us do the same for John Edward Handoc, and all the hundreds more victims of enforced disappearances in the Philippines today. Let us also raise our concerned voices to the Obama administration for continuing to monetarily support the Arroyo government in the Philippines. Let us register our call to withdraw all forms of US economic aid to the Philippines until such time human rights for the Filipino people are recognized, respected, and upheld.

For the cause of peace, justice, and human rights,

Lolan Sevilla, Dasaw Floyd, Gary Labao, Jamie Mapa, Rico Foz, Ramon Mappala, Berna Ellorin, Peter Arvin Jabido, Jonna Baldres

NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
www.nychrp.org

VISTING FORCES AGREEMENT (VFA) TEACH-IN

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2009

6:30pm-8:30pm

@ Filipino Community Center (5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way)

 

News Release

May 25, 2009

 

For more information:

Jeff Rice, AnakBayan-BAYAN-USA edjop82@gmail.com, 206-291-8078

L. U. Carpenter, Pinay sa Seattle-GABRIELA-USA, pinayinfo@gmail.com, 206-859-7525

 

JOIN BAYAN NW AS IT CALLS ON THE U.S. TO JUNK THE VFA!

“We are civilized & yet the savage acts against our people continue.”

 

Seattle, WA---On Thursday, May 28, 2009 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. local chapters of BAYAN-USA, Pinay sa Seattle and AnakBayan-Seattle, along with their allies will be holding a Teach-In at the Filipino Community Center (5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way) to mark the 10^th Anniversary of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in the Philippines.  They are asking others to come dialogue, teach, and learn about the effects the VFA has on Filipino people in the Philippines, the United States, and other countries.  Along with learning about the VFA, there will be information on local, national, and international campaigns of resistance that state, “We are civilized & yet savage acts against our people continue.”

Pinay sa Seattle & AnakBayan-Seattle are not alone as their fellow activists and allies in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, and more, under the national Filipino alliance of BAYAN-USA hold joint actions from March 27^th to March 28^th to mark this horrifying history of colonization.  The 10^th anniversary of the VFA comes after another reported incident of a Filipina, “Vanessa,” being raped by a U.S. serviceman, US Marine Daniel Smith being acquitted of his crime of rape against “Nicole,” human rights violations and murders mounting, and serious allegations of corruption involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Balikatan military war exercises backed by the US.  The VFA gives the US access to the Philippines at the expense of Filipino peoples’ rights to sovereignty and their very lives.  As the US shakes hands with the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Aroyo, and counts benefits, there is the question “at what expense?” and “at whose?”  The JUNK VFA Movement believes it is time for an honest assessment of the alleged benefits derived from 10 years of the VFA.  We call on the U.S. to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement, stop providing military aid to the Philippines, and for US Troops to withdraw from the Philippines.

Within Seattle, new campaigns are being developed to understand how U.S. tax dollars are fueling the destruction of our homeland and forced migration throughout the world instead of education for children.  Also, strategizing about the continued resistance to lands, bodies, and minds.  For instance, the issuance of an apology is being demanded for by the University of Washington and the city of Seattle with the launching of the “We are Civilized! Apologize!!” Campaign.  This campaign highlights the effects of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition (A-Y-P-E) where the most popular exhibit was the zoo-like “Igorot Village” where Filipinos were portrayed as merely “dog-eaters” and “head-hunters” and forced to perform indigenous dances and ceremonies.   Many of the images and stereotypes created during the AYPE and 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair continue to this day.  The AYPE is recognized and celebrated as “putting Seattle on the map.”  Jeff Rice states, “However the question is, at whose expense?  At the same time, a brutal war of colonization was still active during the Philippine-American War under the auspices of “civilizing a savage race.”  One million Filipinos were killed in the first major overseas military action of the United States.”  The Philippines is still in US control. 

 

Today, the question is still relevant, “at whose expense?” and to state that, “we are civilized people” is still pertinent 100 years after the US colonized the Philippines and 10 years of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) as the continued brutalization of Filipino people remains.  There is resistance that happens in the fight for true justice; by attending on March 28^th, the community can come together and learn how. 

 

SIGN the PETITION! JUNK the VFA!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/

 

JUNK THE VFA!

Terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement!

U.S. Troops Out of the Philippines!!!

No U.S. Military Aid to the Philippines!!!

No to Another Generation of Comfort Women!!!  Stop Military Rapes

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