News Statement
February 1, 2012
Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES! US OUT OF ASIA-PACIFIC!– BAYAN USA
Aquino Aligns with US Military Build-Up in Asia-Pacific, a Threat to Peace in the Region

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, express condemnation and disgust over the efforts of Philippine President Benigno Simeon “Noy-Noy” Aquino III to accommodate the “new” US defense strategy that entails a so-called “rebalance to Asia”, including an increase in US military presence in the Philippines. BAYAN USA also denounces the US government’s Cold War-style media offensive against economic rival China as a pretext to justify its gross expansion of US military powers in the Asia-Pacific in order to increase US economic, political, and military investments in the region.

Economically-Motivated

Under neoliberalism, the US economy is largely dependent on the Pacific Rim, particularly because of its export position. In 2010, the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum accounted for 61% of US exports ($775 billion) and 37% of private services exports ($205 billion). The US economy’s export position in the region accounts for nearly 5 million US jobs. But for countries such as the Philippines, the US investment and export position is at the heart of deepening crisis and poverty due to lack of sovereign claim to natural resources and territory. In line with their national interests, countries like the Philippines must wage fierce struggles against US interventionism in order to assert their right to chart their own economic and political paths.

With China’s economic growth threatening US dominion over the region, and with Obama’s push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that would outline a US-dominated free trade zone in the region, the US government has announced it will shift its military focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan and renew its commitment to assert it’s position in Asia-Pacific. It has found a reliable stooge in the Aquino government. Recent negotiations framed as a Strategic Dialogue between top Washington security and defense officials and the Aquino administration have laid the ground work for the consolidation of the Philippines as a key US military base location, serving as a permanent staging ground for US military offensives, storage space for surveillance drones, resupply and refueling station for US warships and aircrafts, as well as rest and recreational facility for US servicemen.

In addition to violating Philippine national sovereignty, Aquino’s compliance in accommodating US saber-rattling seeks to undo the 1991 landmark decision of the Philippine Senate to reject the US bases treaty that essentially shutdown permanent US military bases Subic Naval and Clark Air Field, by once again opening these ports for indefinite and “rotational” basing of US troops and throughout the archipelago.

Aquino Positions the Philippines in the Crossfire

Not only does Aquino government reach an all-time high in the barometer of US puppetry with these negotiations, it is aligning the Philippines with a military scheme that will threaten peace in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The US government, driven by its war-dependent economy, is expanding its military presence in Asia-Pacific region under rhetoric of security in the South China Sea and in particular the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands, when in fact it seeks an excuse to provoke military aggression and create a war-like situation against China that will boost up it military-industrial complex at the expense of the surrounding countries. Such compliance on the Aquino government’s part will surely position the Filipino people in the middle of the crossfire.

Starting with the Philippine-American War of 1899, which marked the advent of US imperialism onto the global stage at the turn of the 20th century, 113 years US geopolitical strategy in region has left the Philippines with a tragic history and ongoing reality of US military infestation whose social costs have burdened its people with untold pain and misery. From hosting the largest US permanent foreign military bases to succumbing to the onerous US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)– the mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements– to the virtually permanent Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), over one century of US military presence in the country has been directly linked to the indiscriminate killings, rape and other sexual offenses, massive displacement of rural communities, waste, disease, and other forms of human rights abuses.

Call for Resistance & Solidarity

As Filipinos in the US, BAYAN USA sees concretely how both the Aquino and Obama governments– guardians of financial oligarchy– are acting in betrayal of the broad interest of the Filipino and American peoples. Just as the poor grow poorer in the Philippines under Aquino’s failed economic policies, so are working people in the US forced to carry the heavy burden of paying for a debt crisis they did not create. As peoples resistance to the intolerable 1% escalates amidst the crisis, BAYAN USA joins the call for greater solidarity between people in the US struggling against the US military-industrial complex and for economic equality and the Filipino people’s ongoing struggle for genuine national independence and democracy. This must translate to greater efforts to expose and oppose the US geopolitical strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as a scheme of the purveyors of crisis and war to maintain tight control over the region’s wealth. Peoples resistance and firm solidarity are key in our efforts to frustrate US interventionism in the region!

US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!
US OUT OF ASIA!
JUNK THE US-RP MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY!
JUNK THE US-RP VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!
UPHOLD PHILIPPINE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

Portrait of a Freedom Fighter
A Book Launching of the Selected Writings of Jose Maria Sison Vols. 1-4

Monday, February 13, 7-9pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, New York 10002
Trains: F/M to 2nd Avenue or J/M/Z to Essex/Delancey Sts.

In the era of Occupy Wall Street, continuing US war and militarization overseas, and the worst global economic crisis in history, the work and writings of Dr. Jose Maria Sison on socialism, imperialist globalization, and peoples movements for national and social liberation prove to stand the test of time in their relevancy, including the 40+ year demonization campaign of US imperialism against him. Despite his listing as a so-called foreign terrorist by the US State Department, Dr. Sison is a well-respected poet, author, lecturer, former political prisoner, anti-imperialist activist, revolutionary and remains actively involved in peoples struggles against US foreign policy and for democracy. He is currently the international chairperson of the International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS), a global formation of more than 350 organizations from 40 countries promoting, supporting and developing the anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples of the world. Dr. Sison has been living in political exile in the Netherlands for more than 25 years.

The Selected Writings of Jose Maria Sison, Volumes 1-4 is a comprehensive compilation of Sison’s writings on socialism, imperialism, war and plunder, peace, terrorism, and peoples resistance spanning over 40 years, a period of time in which Sison served as fiery young leader in the Philippine revolution.

Sponsored by ILPS NYC Local Organizing Committee and BAYAN USA

ILPS member organizations in the New York City area include Al-Awda NY, Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Frente Unidos de Inmigrantes Ecuatorianos (FUIE), International Action Center, NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), NY May 1st Coalition, and Philippine Forum.

News Statement
January 2, 2012

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and their supporters condemn the last minute moves by President Barack Obama to railroad the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on New Year’s Eve 2011. In one fell swoop, the White House has not only played a key role in the intensification of political repression in the United States and worldwide, it has ruthlessly exposed its true character of being first and foremost a loyal representative of the ruling 1%.

The worsening of the protracted global economic malaise continues as monopoly capitalism’s crisis of overproduction has spawned the crisis of public debt through its scheme of neoliberalism. While neoliberalism, under the guise of “free market capitalism”, has long-forced semi-colonies such as the Philippines and other parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America into chronic debt and abject poverty, it has now erupted mercilessly against working people in advanced capitalist countries such as the US, Canada, and the members of the European Union. Neoliberalism’s financialization of capital has produced an acute debt crisis in the US that has ushered in record-breaking unemployment, under-employment, housing foreclosures, lack of access to food, health care, education, and other social services for working people in order to pay off a debt not of their own making.

Threatened by the upswing of class rage and social unrest over intolerable structural economic and political inequities, as recently exemplified by the resilience of the Occupy Movement, the ruling 1% believes that the authorization of the US military to conduct warrantless arrests and indefinitely detain anyone—including US citizens—on US soil or anywhere in the world under the guise of national security will somehow quell growing dissent in the US and internationally by invoking fear. However, history has continuously proven that oppressed peoples readily shed their fear, even in the midst of the state’s repressive apparatus, to fight for the basic right to livelihood and dignity amidst a crisis created by monopoly capitalism, or the over-concentration of the world’s wealth in the hands of a minority elite determined to maintain its hegemonic control.

Amidst human suffering, the ruling financial oligarchy continues to tow the lie that it can recover from the crisis by siphoning trillions in public funds to bail out big banks and financial firms to stimulate economic growth, thereby justifying back-breaking budget cuts and austerity measures on working families. In order to seize control of overseas markets and cheap raw materials, the ruling 1% must act through its lackeys in Washington to beef up its military industrial complex by throwing in more public funds to wage endless overt wars of aggression, proxy wars, covert counter-insurgency operations, militarization, and other forms of intervention abroad. In fact, the NDAA was signed as part of a defense spending bill that would allocate over $600 billion more in US tax dollars towards the country’s war machine, now granting it unlimited powers to act domestically. This includes targeting US activists who express solidarity for national liberation struggles abroad against US intervention, as well as support for governments asserting national sovereignty.

The Filipino people got a taste of abusive expansion of military powers, warrantless arrests, and indefinite detentions during the period of martial law under the former dictatorship of US puppet Ferdinand Marcos. But not even martial law, including the illegal detention and torture of thousands of dissidents throughout the Philippines, could stop a growing and fearless peoples movement for democracy and human rights that was decisive in ousting the Marcos dictatorship, reviving civil liberties, and opening democratic space in the country. It was through the people’s fight against US-directed fascist dictatorship in the Philippines that BAYAN Philippines was born in 1985.

It is expected that the minority of monopoly capitalists, in order to survive the very crisis it created and prolong its inevitable demise, will consolidate itself to concoct schemes of political repression to subdue peoples resistance. But this tiny and fragmented front of monopoly capitalists is no match for the broadening united front of oppressed peoples around the world engaged in class struggle for a better alternative. The NDAA and all other forms of repressive legislation will not succeed in quelling the righteousness of dissent for as the long as the global crisis continues . BAYAN USA proudly links arms with working people in the US to build a movement through education, organization, and mobilization that will defeat the NDAA and all other assaults on democracy, human rights, and civil liberties. ###

News Statement
December 23, 2011
 
Reference- Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA, email: chair@bayanusa.org
 
Fil-Ams to Palparan– Surrender & Face the Law
Arrest Order Turned Manhunt Against Palparan is a Result of Filipino People’s Struggle for Human Rights
 
The recent failed attempt of former Philippine military leader Jovito Palparan to flee the Philippines for Singapore turned all-out manhunt to arrest the retired major general who remains in hiding is not only a clear admission of guilt for the heinous crimes committed against scores of innocent civilians under the former Arroyo administration, but a product of arduous, continuous peoples struggle for the recognition and respect of human rights against an impotent justice system wallowing in a culture of impunity. Filipino-Americans in the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and their supporters echo the call for Jovito Palparan to immediately surrender himself to the state authorities and face the law.
 
“Palparan is responsible for hundreds of cases of human rights violations including the enforced disappearance and torture of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. These are crimes of such heinous nature that he should not be granted any leniency and be immediately arrested and jailed along with his men,” states BAYAN USA founding member Melissa Roxas, a community health worker from the US who traveled to the Philippines and survived violent abduction and torture by Philippine military elements in 2009, in response to the news of the manhunt for Palparan.
 
Before his stint as a Philippine Congressman representing the Bantay Party-List, Palparan was a decorated military general under the former Arroyo administration. He was notoriously known as “Berdugo” (the Butcher) by human rights groups and their supporters for the lead role he played in crafting one of the bloodiest counter-insurgency campaigns in the country’s history– Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL)– with the blessing and support of Washington and tens of millions of dollars annually in US military aid. According to human rights group Karapatan, nine years of OBL under the Arroyo government claimed 1,206 civilian lives through extrajudicial killings and another 206 in enforced disappearances. Justice for the victims remains painfully absent as an overwhelming majority of these cases are unresolved and the perpetrators still at large. Families of the victims still have to contend with a justice system that grants the Philippine military as well as private armies of corrupt politicians a free pass to terrorize civilians, particularly open critics of the government, in order to quell dissent and protect the interests of a ruling landlord bureaucracy.
 
Against this current, it is principally the unflinching perseverance of the victims and their families, along with human rights advocates such as Karapatan, the peoples’ organizations under BAYAN Philippines, churches, lawyers, and progressive partylists to gather evidence and file cases in the domestic and international courts, reach out to human rights groups abroad to shape broad worldwide solidarity against impunity, and build a strong, dynamic people’s movement for human rights and for justice. Nearly a decade later, the fruits of this labor are beginning to appear with the issuance of an arrest order by the Regional Trial Court in Bulacan against Palparan and 3 co-accused in the 2006 dual abduction of University of the Philippines students Cadapan and Empeno.
 
BAYAN USA and its supporters welcome the recent and uncharacteristic turn of the Philippine state authorities to pursue an arrest of Palparan and his cohorts, following the arrest of his former commander-in-chief Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for electoral sabotage. But there remains no reason to assume the struggle for human rights can rest. Now more than ever, the people must stay vigilant in their pressure to the current Aquino administration to exact the full extent of the law on Palparan and his co-accused and ensure due payment for their crimes. This is but a fraction of what the victims and their families truly deserve.
 
“The families have suffered so much and the Philippine government has done very little to help them,” Roxas adds. “The burden has been upon the families, human rights defenders, and people’s organizations to pursue justice.  Finally there is an issue of warrant for Palparan’s arrest.  But as long as Palparan is still at large, trying to evade the law, as long as Sherlyn and Karen still remain missing, the fight for justice will continue.” ###

For Immediate Release
December 2, 2011

Media Contact: Michael Viola
Philippine-United States Solidarity Organization (PUSO)
viola.michael@gmail.com

Seattle, WA – Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of the Philippines-based human rights coalition Karapatan will be in Seattle on December 10 to commemorate International Human Rights Day. Marie will share her own personal story as a survivor of state-sponsored crackdown on human rights, as well as provide an update of the current situation of human rights abuses in the Philippines. Marie will be speaking at the University of Washington on December 9 and the Filipino Community Center (FCC) in South Seattle on December 10.

Marie is a leading advocate for human rights in the Philippines. When Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, his regime specifically targeted youth activists for their role in questioning the unjust policies of the U.S.-supported Philippine dictator. Marie was a political prisoner and was able to escape. However, authorities captured, tortured, and killed her sister, Liliosa. Her sister’s unjust death steered Marie in the ongoing struggle for human rights and to seek justice for the families and victims of state-sponsored torture and extrajudicial killings. As chairperson of Karapatan (which translates to “justice” in the Filipino language), Marie helps document cases of human rights violations perpetrated by the armed forces and paramilitary units, assists the victims and their relatives in seeking justice, and exposes the present government for the more than 1,000 victims of extra-judicial killings.

“It is a huge honor to welcome such a celebrated human rights crusader to Seattle. She has a remarkable story of organizing against the Marcos dictatorship and a sharp analysis of the current human rights situation in the Philippines.” says Joaquin Uy from the Philippine-U.S. Solidarity Organization (PUSO), the community-based group organizing Marie’s talks. “Her presentation is especially timely in offering a global reference point for the Occupy events taking place in New York, Seattle, and in other U.S. cities.”

Marie will be speaking about Karapatan’s annual human rights report under the current Philippine presidency and sharing her unique perspective on the Occupy movements sweeping the nation and the world. Her talk is meant to commemorate International Human Rights Day. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year on December 10, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. Governments and nonprofit organizations all over the world celebrate this day’s declaration that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.”###

Friday, December 9, 2011 at 4pm
University of Washington Campus at the Communications Building, Room 226 (CMU 226) by the Padelford Parking Garage
Admission: Free
Extras: Cultural performance and light snacks provided

Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 6:30pm
Filipino Community Center of Seattle, 5740 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S, Seattle, WA 98118
Admission: Sliding scale donation $5-$12. No one turned away for lack of funds.

All proceeds support political prisoners and the struggle for human rights in the Philippines.

PUSO (Philippine-U.S. Solidarity Organization) translates as “heart” in Filipino is a grassroots organization based in Seattle. We organize to improve the human rights situation and to support lasting peace in the Philippines. To this end, PUSO builds solidarity between the people of the Philippines and the U.S.

Members of BAYAN USA and GABRIELA USA at Occupy Wall Street NYC

Reference: Jackelyn Mariano, BAYAN USA Northeast Coordinator
Email: bayanusa.ne@gmail.com

FILIPINO-AMERICANS IN NYC JOIN UNIONS IN LARGEST OCCUPY WALL ST. DEMO TO DATE

NEW YORK, NY– Filipino-Americans, under the banner of BAYAN USA, joined approximately 80,000 protesters in New York City last Wednesday in the largest support demonstration for Occupy Wall St. since it began 3 weeks ago. The rally in nearby Foley Square and march to Liberty Park, site of Occupy Wall St., was largely called for by organized labor such as the United Federation of Teachers. Other union forces present at the demonstration also included the Transit Workers Union Local 100, and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York (PSC-CUNY).

Donning bright red headbands, member of BAYAN USA, an alliance of 15 Filipino organizations in the US, marched into the evening with the New York Community Contingent, alongside low-income, grassroots, mainly immigrant and people of color-based organizations such as Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Picture the Homeless, FIERCE, and the Audre Lorde Project. BAYAN USA members carried signs reading “Filipino-Americans Support Occupy Wall St.”.

Philippine Congressman Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna Partylist, in New York City for a visit, joined BAYAN USA marchers and urged for more support for Occupy Wall St. from the Filipino community.

“Poverty in the Philippines is brought about by trans-national corporations and American control of our economy and political lives, so these protests of the American people to stop these policies should have the support of other countries like the Philippines,” Colmenares told a reporter before marching.

Protest actions in support of Occupy Wall St. have also unfolded in other US cities including Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

“Occupy Wall St. has grown into a worldwide movement for economic justice and equality,” stated Gary Labao of BAYAN USA. “As immigrants from poor countries, like the Philippines, we understand the desperation wrought by poverty and joblessness. That and the growing social unrest here in the US because of rising unemployement, foreclosures, and budget cuts are all tied to the same root cause– the hoarding of the world’s wealth by a very small financial oligarchy of banks and firms– represented here in Wall St.– whose interests are put above the needs of the 99% by governments put in power by the 99%.

BAYAN USA and marchers from the International Action Center (IAC), each also carried the yellow flag of the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS), a global formation of peoples organizations around the world, of which BAYAN USA and the IAC are members of. ###

News Statement
AQUINO SHOULD DECISIVELY END HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS, VESTIGES OF MARTIAL LAW, IN THE PHILIPPINES– BAYAN USA

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org
 
Sign the online petition to FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Sign the online pledge for JUSTICE FOR MELISSA ROXAS
 
Filipino-Americans, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and their allies are seriously doubtful over the integrity of Philippine President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s so-called commitment to human rights, peace and justice in the Philippines. As today marks the 39th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines by the former Marcos dictatorship in 1972, BAYAN USA warns that the Aquino administration has so far failed to scrap the vestiges of martial law, including an ongoing human rights crisis throughout the country and state corruption, since its inception. It will continue to fail and break its promises on this for as long as it remains loyal the structural framework at the root of rampant human rights violations and corruption– US intervention in the country’s economic, political, and military affairs.

US Intervention & the Philippine Human Rights Crisis
 
A series of cables between the US Embassy in Manila and the US State Department recently released by the whistle-blowing online site Wikileaks reveals the disturbing extent of US government interference in Philippine affairs, as well as a general compliance to the country’s deteriorating human rights and peace situation. This includes strong affirmation and multi-million monetary support for counter-insurgency programs Oplan Bantay Laya I and II that international human rights organizations have patently criticized for perpetrating extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and torture in the Philippines. The cable communications also revealed the US and Philippine government’s lack of concern for the well-being of Melissa Roxas, a US citizen who was abducted, secretly-detained, and tortured for six days by the Philippine military in 2009, as well as a distortion of the facts of the high-profile case that has spurred international uproar and support for Roxas. 

As with the previous Arroyo government, human rights violations have continued under Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan. The Philippine human rights monitoring group Karapatan has documented 48 politically-motivated killings, 5 abductions, 29 torture cases, 151 illegal arrests, and 3010 victims of forced evacuations in rural villages in the first year of the Aquino administration alone. In addition, Aquino has failed to exert any serious effort to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the scores of human rights violations committed under the Arroyo administration. A culture of impunity for human rights abusers remains intact in the country.

Posing Roadblocks to a Just and Lasting Peace
 
As revealed in the Wikileaks cables, the US, Philippine, and Dutch governments collaborated in framing Professor Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), on trumped charges of murder, as well as in keeping Sison on the US Foreign Terrorist List. The 2002 listing of Sison, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA) contributed to jeopardizing the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the NDFP. The NDFP-GPH peace negotiations were set up with the aim of resolving the 40+ year-old civil war between the AFP and the CPP-NPA.

While the resumption of peace negotiations under Aquino led to the release of some NDFP consultants in detention such as Jovencio Balweg, Angelina Ipong, Glicerio Pernia, Maria Luisa Pucray and Jaime Soledad, there remains 13 NDF peace consultants and 340 political prisoners still in detention. The detention of NDF peace consultants remains in violation of the GPH’s obligation to uphold the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and The Hague Joint Declaration.

Ninoy was a Political Prisoner
 
On the 39th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, it is important that Aquino remember that his own parents were victims of martial law. The son of a political prisoner who was detained, tortured, and assassinated for his political convictions, as well as a widow who after ascending to the presidency acted on behalf of her martyred husband and released all political prisoners, including Sison, Aquino can and should decisively scrap the vestiges of martial law in the country by releasing all NDF peace consultants in detention and all political prisoners in the country. Instead, Aquino is in the United States this week with the objective of lobbying for more economic aid, including military aid, from the US government. It is this loyal subservience to US imperial dictates and lack of patriotism in the form of asserting Philippine sovereignty that not only perpetuates, but necessitates state violence and repression against those who struggle for genuine nationalism and democracy.
 
But those who were victimized by killings and disappearances perpetrated by the Philippine state have not been silenced. Their voices resound even louder through the Filipino people’s continuing mass struggle for a truly sovereign and democratic state– a country with an industrialized, self-reliant national economy providing of jobs for its citizens as well as a fair and just land distribution program for the majority of Filipinos who live and work off of it. It is a struggle that echoes even from the Filipinos in the US, as BAYAN USA and allies are meeting Aquino’s US visit with stronger demands for the assertion of Philippine sovereignty by way of rejecting US military, economic, political interference and justice for the victims of human rights violations in the country.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
JUSTICE FOR MELISSA ROXAS!
JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS & ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES!
NEVER AGAIN TO MARTIAL LAW!

Los Angeles, CA – Commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared, over 50 human rights activists, lawyers, law students, church, women and youth activists gathered for an internationally-sponsored press conference for the Justice for Melissa Campaign. Melissa Roxas, a torture survivor who was disappeared for six days at the hands of the Philippine military, filed an official appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Juan Mendez, to help remove roadblocks to her pursuit of justice.  Roxas filed the appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture with the support of world-renowned international human rights lawyers from the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic and the law firm Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison, LLP.

An influential panel of human rights defenders spoke out with Roxas to shed light on the continuing impunity in the Philippines and call for justice for all victims of torture and disappearance worldwide. Victoria Don, Esq., Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison, LLP; Julie Gutman, Executive Director of Program for Torture Victims; Marvyn Perez, survivor of torture from Guatemala; and Rev. David Farley, Echo Park United Methodist Church, with the Justice for Melissa campaign, gave powerful messages of solidarity for the campaign to seek justice.

Many in the audience were moved to tears as they listened to Melissa share her experience as a survivor of government-sponsored abduction and torture in the Philippines. Roxas concluded her statement with a reflection on the experiences of other survivors and an invitation to help seek justice for all victims of human rights violations:

Jean Améry, an Austrian philosopher, who was detained and tortured in concentration camps, had said ‘Anyone who has suffered torture will never again be at ease with the world.’  Parts of me died when I was in that secret prison.  It has been a long road of recovery for me.  Even after two years since I was surfaced, I still have the scars and physical injuries from the torture.  And there are the invisible scars that you don’t see, memories that I have to live with forever.  But what gives me the strength to speak to you today is thinking about the many more people that remain disappeared, that continue to be tortured, and that continue to be killed.  They cannot be here with us today, and their absence fills this room and the world with a longing for justice.

While the victims and their families continue to suffer, the torturers walk free.  So how can I be at ease in the world when human rights violations and torture exist?  I hope that you will join us in the campaign to end human rights violations.  I hope you will help us in our efforts to bring the violators and torturers to justice.

Atty. Victoria Don, a member of the legal team assisting Roxas, explained the significance of Melissa’s pursuit of justice. “Ms. Roxas has actually pursued domestic remedies within the Philippines but to no avail. At this point, there is little recourse for her but to turn to international mechanisms for justice,” stated Atty. Don. “The current UN Special Rapporteur is Prof. Juan Mendez. As Special Rapporteur on Torture, he bears a specific mandate from the Human Rights Council. This mandate is to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights problems through activities including responding to individual complaints like the one Ms. Roxas has submitted.” Atty. Don and the legal team working with Melissa have called upon the Philippine government to:

1. Provide your office with copies of all records and other information pertaining to the investigation conducted by all government entities, including the AFP, CHR, the Philippine National Police and Bureau of Investigation, of Ms. Roxas’s abduction, detention, and torture;

2. Fully cooperate and ensure the full cooperation of the AFP in an investigation to determine the identity of Ms. Roxas’s torturers, including by allowing full access to Fort Magsaysay and providing copies of all relevant documents, including but not limited to entry and exit records and rosters of all AFP personnel and other persons and vehicles who entered, exited, or were present at the fort during Ms. Roxas’s abduction and in the seven days immediately preceding and following her captivity;

3. Investigate and prosecute all those responsible for Ms. Roxas’s ordeal, including any members of paramilitary groups, soldiers, military officers, and elected officials all the way up the chain of command; and,

4. Provide you an invitation to undertake a country visit to assist the government in identifying the causes of torture in cases such as Ms. Roxas’s, and to offer practical solutions to end the use of torture and other human rights abuses and ensure that the behavior of the AFP and other forces comply with international standards.

The Executive Director of the Program for Torture Victims, Julie Gutman, Esq., gave a moving message of solidarity on behalf of their organization. “I am honored to be here today to lend the full support of our human rights organization, Program for Torture Victims, to Melissa’s noble cause. She has channeled her own healing into becoming a strong spokesperson to end torture in the Philippines and throughout the world. She has also helped others who have been victims of torture to have hope to heal,” shared Gutman. Roxas sought the help of PTV two years ago when she returned home from the Philippines after being abducted and tortured. “For over 30 years, PTV has worked to rebuild the lives of torture survivors from over 65 different countries, people who have stood up for freedom, democracy and human dignity and paid a very heavy price.  We have seen firsthand the devastating consequences of state-sponsored torture in thousands of men, women and children. We are part of a critical growing global movement that seeks to banish the use of torture and today we add our voice loudly and clearly to support Melissa Roxas and all those speaking out about her shocking persecution at the hands of the Philippine military,” declared Gutman.

“Tragically, Melissa’s story is not unique. It is often those individuals like Melissa, who have the courage to stand up for the poor, to stand up for those who have no voice, that become themselves victims of torture. We must stand with Melissa and all victims of torture as we confront those who violate the most fundamental laws of human decency, we must hold them accountable. Only by doing so can we truly work without torture,” concluded Gutman.

Torture survivor, Marvyn Perez, shared his experience of abduction and torture at the hands of the government when he was just 14 years old in Guatemala. “It has been 29 years of sharing my testimony, hoping to educate others about the evil practice of disappearance and torture, which usually come together. It is sad to find out that governments around the world still practice these crimes, these crimes which are usually denied or justified in the name of national security. Hundreds, if not thousands, around the world undergo torture. Unfortunately, most of them do not survive. Melissa and I are lucky to have survived. We have a moral responsibility to speak out and to seek justice. We share with all of you our stories but our testimonies could be meaningless if we don’t seek justice. To denounce a crime is not enough. We must do everything possible to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes. That is why I am here this afternoon, to show my support for the cause of Melissa Roxas and to all the torture survivors and victims of the Philippines. I join all the efforts to seek Justice for Melissa. I hope that in the near future we can see her perpetrators facing a trial and later sent to prison because even they have a right to a fair trial. Melissa, you must know that you are not alone, that many people are willing to walk along with you,” affirmed Perez.

Pastor David Farley, of Echo Park United Methodist Church, closed the panel with a song dedicated to the disappeared and the all those seeking justice. “I think that those of us who proclaim that persons are created in the image of God and that Creator loves them and values them, have a tremendous obligation to live out that belief in solidarity with those who are having that image that they bear abused and disrespected and damaged. Those of us within the faith communities have a particular opportunity to help because we are both part of an institution that has access to levers of power that can have some kind of influence and we are present in struggling communities here and all over the world. Our presence, both in solidarity with struggling peoples and in access to those who have power over them, gives us a particular responsibility to act and to speak and to serve. And so many are. The United Methodist Church, has been strongly supportive of human rights, particularly in the Philippines and in support of Melissa and for many who have suffered torture.”

The program was concluded with a call to support Melissa Roxas and all victims of human rights violations. The Justice for Melissa Campaign has launched an on-line pledge for supporters to take and pass on to their friends and colleagues.

A copy of the Submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture can be found at the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School.

Co-sponsors for the Justice for Melissa Press Conference and Melissa’s Appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture include: BAYAN USA, Program for Torture Victims (PTV), Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), GABRIELA USA, Habi Arts, Sisters of Gabriela Awaken, Filipino Migrant Center, San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Babae San Francisco, Anakbayan San Diego, Anakbayan Los Angeles, Anakbayan East Bay,Pinay sa Seattle, Katarungan: Center for Peace, Justice and Human Rights in the Philippines, San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Anakbayan Silicon Valley, MAIZ Movimiento de Accion, Inspirando Servicio, Dr. Lucy Burns, UCLA; Rev. Sandie Richards, United Methodist Minister.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

Filipinos Across the United States to Protest Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address

WHAT:

Nationwide Protest Demonstrations

WHERE and WHEN:

Queens, New York
Sunday, July 24, 2011
12 noon
Corner of 69th St. & Roosevelt
Woodside, Queens

Los Angeles, California
Monday, July 25, 2011
5:30 PM
Philippine Consulate
3600 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010

San Francisco, California
Monday, July 25, 2011
5:30 PM
Corner of Powell & Market St. Downtown San Francisco
March to Philippine Consulate
447 Sutter Street, San Francisco

Coinciding with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s second annual “State of the Nation Address,” Filipino communities in New York, Southern California, and Northern California will conduct protest actions on July 24-25 to denounce the administration’s failure to change the course of the Philippines’ downward spiral despite Aquino’s lofty campaign promises and bragging that “dreaming is possible again.”

Concerned Filipino Americans in the cities with the largest populations of Filipinos in the U.S. will conduct demonstrations calling attention to the worsening human rights crisis and dismal economic situation in the Philippines under Aquino’s tenure. Since Aquino was sworn in as president just one year ago, 45 activists have been slain in politically-motivated killings, 5 have been victims of forced disappearance and over 300 political prisoners remain behind bars. The perpetrators of the 1,206 extra-judicial killings, more than 300 forced disappearance, and over 1,000 cases of torture committed under the previous administration of President Gloria Arroyo remain at-large, including those guilty of abducting and torturing renowned Filipina American poet, artist and human rights advocate Melissa Roxas. Aquino’s failure to prosecute anyone for these human rights violations coupled with his implementation of the sugar-coated counter-insurgency program “Operation Plan Bayanihan” sustains the culture of impunity within the Philippine armed forces and allows widespread human rights abuses to continue.

Protestors cite Aquino’s losing combination of dependence on foreign investment and loans and export-oriented/import-dependent economy as the source of the country’s inevitable economic slide, which has resulted in a total of 11.3 million unemployed workers this year and over 4 million families suffering from hunger. Massive unemployment and zero job growth have fueled mass migration of Filipinos abroad, to destinations including the United States where the job market is equally grim and the few available jobs are in the most underpaid, overworked and dangerous fields. Stories of human trafficking, indentured servitude, and wage theft of Filipino migrants have been coming to light more frequently in recent weeks, including cases like the “Florida 15” who were trafficked by their Filipino employer Jose Villanueva who owns recruitment and employment company San Villa Ship Management Co., forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees, given jobs they did not sign up for, and paid late or not at all.

Protest actions are being organized by BAYAN-USA in partnership with the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and local allies in each city.

News Release
Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
email: chair@bayanusa.org

US Anti-War Activists, Peace Advocates Gather in Manila for Historic International Conference Amidst Looming US Military Presence in Region

Over 60 US-based anti-war activists composed one of the largest country delegations to the fourth international assembly of the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS), held last July 7-9 in San Mateo, Rizal. They were joined by over 430 delegates from East and West Asia, Oceania, Africa, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America in the largest assembly of ILPS since its founding in 2001. The assembly also marked the 10th anniversary of the global alliance of over 350 grassroots organizations and movements from over 40 countries worldwide.

Delegates from the BAYAN USA, the largest progressive Filipino-American alliance in the US, People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) and Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) in San Francisco, the International Action Center, the New York May 1st Coalition, and the Black Agenda Report were in attendance and participated in the various plenary and workshop sessions of the assembly that tackled issues such as US military aggression, US foreign military bases and operations, US-funded counter-insurgency operations, as well as worldwide struggles of workers, migrants, farmers, women, youth, and indigenous peoples in the face of neoliberal policies and continuing foreign economic intervention.

In addition to opposing ongoing US military aggression in in West Asia and North Africa, the assembly also united strongly in support several national movements asserting sovereignty against US domination and intervention, namely US-Israeli occupied Palestine, the Philippines, as well as progressive governments in Latin America such as that of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mexican singer-songwriter and migrant rights organizer Rosa Marta Zarate-Macias described the large gathering as “encountering a family I have chosen to be a part of. I came all the way from Mexico to the Philippines, only to find out that the struggles of people here in Asia and in Africa are the same as in Latin America. This gathering opened my eyes to our common struggle and our common adversary– the few wealthy families in our countries that serve the interest of the corporations and enslave the rest of the people.”

Kuusela Hilo, Vice-Chairperson of BAYAN USA and newly-elected member to the International Coordinating Committee (ICC), the lead body of the ILPS, stated, “The worsening global economic crisis continues to drive the intensification of the profit-driven US military-industrial complex, at the human cost of the peoples of the world, including the American people. The growing unrest in the US over deadly budget cuts on education, health care, as well as rising unemployment and joblessness must link with similar struggles abroad in order to effectively shake the current system and facilitate change. The ILPS can certainly be maximized as a global coordinating body to realize this.”

Hilo joins newly-elected ILPS Vice-Chairperson of External Affairs Bill Doares of the International Action Center and newly-elected ILPS Auditor Lyn Meza of Chelsea Uniting Against the War in Massachusetts in the ICC.

Key international campaigns adopted during the international assembly were also taken up by several US delegates, including a global campaign to dismantle the US foreign military bases and operations in over 700 posts worldwide.

In addition, San Francisco-based hip-hop performers Power Struggle, Seattle hip-hop MC Rogue Pinay, and acoustic acts Taospuso joined performers from Palestine, the Philippines, and Taiwan in a crowd-pleasing solidarity night and even performed throughout the assembly itself.

Delegates from the United States also committed to building a US country chapter of ILPS by next year. A country chapter in Canada was recently launched earlier this year, joining the roster of ILPS country chapters in Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, and Indonesia.

Earlier in the week, US missile ships dropped anchor in the South China Sea to engage the Philippine Navy in joint military exercises under the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty. The unpopular presence of the US military in close proximity to the Spratly Islands has moved international groups to protest the exercises as a maneuver to take advantage of the territorial dispute to provoke US-directed military aggression against rival superpower China and in the region.