FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2007
Contact: Joanna Robledo-Maderazo, BAYAN-USA Women's Committee
Email: info@bayanusa.org, 415-637-4129, www.bayanusa.org
FILIPINO WOMEN ADDRESS THE REAL STATE OF THE PHILIPPINE NATION: DECEPTION, FRAUD, and INTENSIFYING POLITICAL REPRESSION!
The Filipino women organizations, babae (San Francisco), Pinay Sa Seattle (Seattle), and FiRE (Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment- New York) of BAYAN USA unitedly demand that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo admit to the REAL state of the Philippine nation this July 23, 2007 during her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the Philippines. Every year, SONA has been GMA's shameless brag list of the Philippine economy's supposed improvements and her administration's accomplishments in the last year. But the truth is that GMA is bleeding the Philippine nation dry with her administration's rampant human rights violations, and economic policies that keep the country in poverty, thus driving thousands of Filipinos to seek work outside of the Philippines everyday. The Filipino people have long withstood GMA's deception and exploitation during her six years as President, and will no longer tolerate her corruptness.
Human Rights Violations: Election Cheating and Political Repression
In classic tyrannical fashion, GMA has fastened onto power in violent ways: Election fraud, killings and abductions of mass leaders, and recreating a state of lawlessness by renewing an undeclared state of martial law. Since 2001, Bush and Macapagal Arroyo's campaign of murder in the Philippines has so far killed 850+ labor leaders, youth and community organizers, political activists, women's rights advocates, church leaders and journalists. Eighty of those killed are women--mothers and daughters of the nation, half of who were organizers for, or leaders of Gabriela Women's Party or the GABRIELA national women's alliance. Many more have gone missing, been abducted, are illegally detained, or consistently harassed. Despite international condemnation from Amnesty International, United Nations investigator Philip Alston, and dozens of other human rights advocates and organizations, GMA has continued to avoid any accountability for the escalating number of human rights violations in the Philippines.
The Human Security Act
The Human Security Act of the Philippines, which went into effect on July 14, 2007, is an example of legislated repression that will be used against dissenters and critics of the GMA administration. It will only aggravate the current climate of political harassment and persecution. This law targets the agitated masses of Filipinos by quelling non-violent protests, petitions, and forums, silencing the needs of the Filipino people. Anyone who is critical of the Arroyo government and fights for basic human rights will be charged with "Terrorism" and will likely be subject to unwarranted searches and unlawful arrests. The Human Security Act is yet another tool for GMA to strengthen the culture of fear and is an attempt to legitimize the ongoing state violence carried out by the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Worsening Economic Crisis and Overseas Filipina Workers (OFW)
The real state of the nation will reveal the wide-scale poverty that plagues the country, exemplified as joblessness, landlessness, prostitution, and hunger. These conditions are caused by GMA's puppetry to U.S. imperialism. In the US, a primary receiver of Filipina migrant workers, Filipino women are consistently trafficked into working as nurses, domestic workers, nannies, caregivers and sexual slaves. The Philippine government's neglect of OFWs is a long-standing issue as OFWs face exploitation, sexual assault, violence, and discrimination overseas. The recent exploitation of the Sentosa 27 health care workers in New York reveals how GMA turns a blind eye to the violence inflicted on OFWs. The abuse and injustices enacted by state-sponsored recruitment agencies, like the Sentosa firm, are affecting the general migrant worker population, the majority of who are Filipino women. The Philippine government profits from these OFWs' earnings through remittances that amounted to $13 billion in 2006, but does nothing to protect the rights and welfare of these so-called heroes of the nation. Foreign remittance for 2007 is expected to go over $14 billion, but at the expense of Filipino women all over the world.
The truth is, the state of the Philippine Nation is appalling. We, as Filipina women's organizations representing Filipina U.S. citizens and immigrants are united in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. We join the thousands of enraged Filipino people in protest when GMA will broadcast yet another false and antagonizing account of her accomplishments in the last year, despite the gross accounts of injustice created by her administration. Our duty as Filipinas living in the U.S. is to hold the US government accountable for sending military funding that sustains state violence in the Philippines and forces our families to leave our homeland. From the Philippines to the United States, babae, Pinay Sa Seattle, and FiRE remain connected with those struggling to fight for basic human rights. All across the world, let us expose Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for what she really is, a greedy and corrupt President!
END ALL VIOLENCE AGAINST FILIPINO WOMEN!!!
WOMEN RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS!!!
JUNK THE HUMAN SECURITY ACT!!!
JUSTICE FOR THE SENTOSA 27++ NURSES!!!
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babae (Tagalog for "woman") is a women's organization that serves to address the rights and welfare of Filipinas in the San Francisco Bay Area. We mobilize and organize around Pinay issues to strengthen our legacy as empowered Filipina women in solidarity with National Democracy in the Philippines and international women's emancipation.
PINAY* Sa Seattle is a collective of PINAYS celebrating our multifaceted identities, revolutionary history, and rich culture. We work to build a community in the Seattle area invested in educating, defending, and advocating for the human rights of Filipinas globally. *PINAY - a term coined by Filipinos in the US during the 1920s, refer to women of Philippine descent.
Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) is a mass-based women's organization serving New York City and its surrounding areas. We connect the Filipino diaspora to the women's struggle in the Philippines by bringing woman-born and woman-identified people together. We challenge pervading stereotypes and create self-defined Filipina identities.
Collectively, these three organizations represent the women's sector of BAYAN-USA, an alliance of progressive Filipino groups in the U.S., and the only 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. (www.bayanusa.org)
