GMA, BARRIER TO WOMEN POWER SHOULD STOP USING SUU KYI, BURMA TO COVER

NEWS RELEASE
30 September 2007

For Reference: REP. LIZA LARGOZA MAZA 0920-9134540
Jang Monte (Public Information Officer) 0915-6463009

GMA, BARRIER TO WOMEN POWER SHOULD STOP USING SUU KYI, BURMA TO COVER
HER BLOODY RECORD

GABRIELA Women's Partylist Representative Liza Largoza Maza said it is
hypocritical and ironic that Mrs. Arroyo called on women power to
demand the release of Burmese pro democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at
the United Nations last Friday.

"Mrs. Arroyo's statements are attempts to cover up her regime's
murderous record on extra judicial killings and disappearances, amid
much international criticism over the human rights crisis in the
country. This duplicitous show of support for Aung San Suu Kyi and the
pro-democracy movement in Burma is mortifying," said Gabriela Women's
Party Representative Liza Largoza Maza.

The Gabriela solon further said, "Mrs. Arroyo even had the gall to
summon women power for the Burmese leader when in her own country, her
repressive policies are the very hindrance to women power." Maza
pointed out that human rights documentation in the country since Mrs.
Arroyo assumed office in 2001 indicate that 96 women have fallen
victims to extrajudicial killings and 31 have disappeared.

Under Mrs. Arroyo, the Philippines have had 22 women political
prisoners, many of them in conditions no different from Suu Kyi.

"No different from the military junta in Burma, Mrs. Arroyo has led
the violent dispersal of protests with her Calibrated Pre-emptive
Response. She has led attempts to silence critics with her
Proclamation 1017 and deny Filipinos the truth behind the rampage of
corruption in her administration with EO 464. Certainly, her two-faced
statements cannot hide her bloody record from the international
community."#