GMA! Sorry is not enough! Resign or be ousted!

Join BAYAN USA and USA 4 GMA Resignation for an International Day of Action calling for the immediate end to the illegitimate presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!Tuesday, July 12, 2005, 4:00 pmIn front of the San Francisco Philippine Consulate447 Sutter St.San Francisco, California 94108(get off at Powell BART station, walk 4 blocks up Powell, turn right on Sutter)Since her ascendance to the office in early 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has driven the Philippines down a path of extreme debt, hunger, poverty and state terror. In 2004, the GMA administration declared the entire nation under a fiscal crisis. The current Philippine economic crisis however is a mere result of the President’s unrelenting puppetry to the U.S. that continues to champion imperialist globalization policies. These include the deregulation and privatization of basic services such as oil, water and power, as well as the liberalization of important industries like mining. In line with her anti-people austerity measures, she imposed the Value Added Tax (VAT). She has refused to heed the call of the workers for a P125 across the board increase in wages, the call of peasants and farm workers for genuine land reform. As Filipinos in the U.S., we have a responsibility to support our families back home who deserve a President that will advance their need for decent livelihood and social justice.While the remittances of Filipinos in the U.S. (over 8 billion just last year) and other migrant Filipinos has kept the Philippine economy from completely crumbling, GMA has done nothing to protect immigrant Filipinos in the U.S. against the blatant racist attacks of the Bush administration. While GMA is the first to open up Philippine land and seas to Bush's war of terrorism, she lifts not one finger to protest Bush's scapegoating and mass firing of Filipino airport screeners and deportation and inhumane treatment of hundreds of Filipino immigrants.At present, the U.S-backed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime has surpassed the Marcos dictatorship in the number of human rights violations. Political killings of activists and fascist measures against the people are on the rise.Since January 2005 alone, at least 39 leaders and members of Bayan Muna, BAYAN, Anakpawis, Kilusan Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and GABRIELA, as well as human rights lawyers, church people, peasants and innocent civilians have been killed by military and paramilitary forces. Hundreds more have been illegally detained, abducted, and/or tortured. The November 16th 2004 massacre of at least 14 unarmed farm workers and hundreds more wounded in Hacienda Luisita has signified the newest wave of state-sponsored terror, with the biggest targets of human rights violations being human rights defenders themselves.The GMA administration's silence and inaction on these atrocities indicates it officially sanctions the repression. To further suppress the people, Arroyo, staying true to her U.S. imperialist master allows the continuous flow of U.S. troops into the country, mocking Philippine sovereignty. She has taken the blueprint from the U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act and is herself pushing the equally anti-people "Anti-Terrorism Bill" which promises to further repress the people's right to dissent.Now, the people are once again confronted with the bankruptcy and illegitimacy of her regime with the recent jueteng (illegal lottery) and corruption scandals, and now with the unraveling of the taped conversations with Commissioner of Elections Virgilio Garcilliano that directly links President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to massive electoral fraud.The Filipino people have had enough! We, Filipinos in the United States, demand her immediate resignation and support the mounting call for her ouster, if she refuses to step down.