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Ermita, Malacanang Spinning Lies About UN Officials' Take on Human Rights Situation-- NYCHRP

News Release
November 1, 2007

Reference: Jamie Mapa, NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, email: nychrp@yahoo.com

Ermita, Malacanang Spinning Lies About UN Officials' Take on Human Rights Situation-- NYCHRP

New York-- It seems Philippine Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita's claims of praise from United Nations officials Philip Alston and Louise Arbor are different from what is actually reflected on paper. After a recent trip to New York with members of the Presidential Commission for Human Rights, Purificacion Quisumbing and Coco Quisumbing, Ermita claimed the Philippine delegation was able to "convince" both UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that "the Philippines' human rights record is not that bad as earlier claimed", as reported in a recent Philippine Daily Inquirer last October 26th.

Ermita was deployed by Malacanang to New York last week to answer to a prelimary report drafted by Alston indicating the Philippine military's role in perpetrating the nearly 900 killings and 200 enforced disappearances of broad civilian opposition forces since 2001.

Alston is scheduled to release a final report in the coming weeks.

"The Ermita visit was mainly a desperate attempt to get Alston to revise what a really damaging preliminary report for the Philippine government," states Gary Labao of the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines or NYCHRP. "Arroyo wants the final report to be sanitized and clean, for her administration's sake. The first report opened up the floodgates for an outpour of worldwide condemnation to the human rights situation in the Philippines."

Labao also pointed out that during Alston's statement to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly back in October 25th, nowhere in his documented statement was an indication of him being convinced that the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines is improving through Malacanang's measures.

"The bottom line is that only the elimination of such killings and the ending of the impunity enjoyed to date, by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in particular, will signal that the situation has turned the corner. Yet I continue to receive deeply disturbing reports," Alston stated.

"It's really pathetic that Malacanang is pressuring Philippine media to paint a promising picture about their UN visit, when the reality is Alston remains unconvinced. This should only deepen the public's distrust of Malacanang's spin on the human rights situation," Labao ended. ###

May 1st Statement

Statement
May 1, 2007

Reference: Chito Quijano, Chair, BAYAN USA, email: chair @ bayanusa.org


Filipinos Unite With All Immigrant Workers vs.
Domestic War Inside World's #1 Labor-Hosting Beast
Statement of Solidarity of the US Chapter of BAYAN for the Great American Boycott II

Justice for all immigrants!

Today, May 1, 2007, the mass movement of immigrants and workers in the United States will rise up in unity against the intensified attacks and repressive state measures of the US government versus the ranks of the common working people, both foreign and US-born. The US Chapter of BAYAN, an umbrella coalition of multi-sectoral organizations fighting for social change in the Philippines and building resistance against US foreign policy will be amongst the ranks of those taking to the streets in major US cities for the continuation of the Great American Boycott for immigrant rights.

We also remember and salute Filipino migrant workers in the US such as domestic worker Fely Garcia and the courageous Sentosa nurses still struggling for justice amidst oppressive legislation and policy.

It's important to remember that the United States is the number one labor-hosting nation in the world. It imports mass droves of workers from developing nations to service the cheap labor needs of its monopoly capitalist economy. A huge percentage of these workers come from Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific global regions, whose countries suffer from the maldevelopment imposed by US-led neoliberal globalization and its agents, a form of war against the smaller economies of nations to stunt development and progress, and hence incapacitate countries to feed and sustain life for its own citizens.

The Philippines is among the top three labor sending countries in the world, with the most foreign-dependent economy in the world. Natural resources are plundered and internal work industries are not allowed to flourish. This drives the county's basic problems of landlessness, joblessness, and deepening poverty. Every day, at least 3000 Filipinos exit the Philippines to search for work abroad. In fact, migration is so ingrained in Philippine culture, the US-structured education system is molded to rear Filipino children dreaming of serving their country best by leaving it as trained and skilled professional workers versus serving their own countrymen. This is the hard reality for a majority of the world's workers driven by the global engine of poverty and the desire to survive it.

But the dream of greener pastures abroad can quickly shift to nightmares once immigrants land jobs in labor-hosting countries.

Here in the United States, the legislators and organs of government seek to create bills to manipulate the flow of immigration to create a large underclass of skilled workers that are cheap, docile, and enslaved. By restricting basic human rights against the economic desperation of migrant workers, they are assured they can revive slavery in practice the US without ever having to call it slavery.

Filipinos in the US are certainly not exempt from this oppression. Filipinos remain the 3rd largest immigrant group in the US, with over 60,000 entering the US workforce annually.

The historic Filipino migrant struggles lived by Carlos Bulosan and Philip Vera Cruz continue with the criminal neglect of Filipina domestic worker Fely Garcia, the mass trafficking of Filipino health workers by the Sentosa Recruitment Agency in New York, and the intensified raids and deportations of Filipino families under the auspices of Homeland Security. The inhumane raids and deportations of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement, or ICE, continue to tear Filipino parents apart from their children in the middle of the night, incarcerating Filipinos with other targetted communities as if they were convicted criminals and sometimes worse-- animals.

These outline the reasons why more and more Filipinos must join the current fight for immigrant rights.

Last year's passage of two such legislative bills in the Senate and House of Representatives illustrated how even after over 200 years of the United States existence as an independent nation-- according to the charters of white European settlers who migrated, wiped and destroyed the already thriving indigenous nations to whom the land originally belonged-- systemic racism, xenophobia, and slave-driven perspective of the country's elite still remains dominantly expressed in US immigration and labor laws that impact the country's workforce.

This is not the case for the US working class and the world's immigrant workers in the US. Among these ranks are the sharpest lines that can see through the maneuvers of the anti-immigrant, anti-worker state precisely because they continuously bear the heaviest brunt of state oppression. As the rich continue to thrive and the poor working class get poorer, the passage of the two bills triggered a high show of unity as millions took to the streets for the largest mobilizations in the history of the world's so-called "melting pot".

The defeat of HR 4437 and SB 2611 remind us all of the power of united peoples, and more importantly, united working peoples, to strike blows against this said oppressive system. As was the lessons learned from the Black Civil Rights Movement before us, movement on the streets is what will churn the vacillating positions of US legislators and bring about a true and genuine comprehensive immigration reform.

BAYAN Philippines, as represented by its US Chapter BAYAN USA, has always championed the leadership of the working class as the vanguard of such social movements for just and lasting social changes. Even the historic criminal neglect for Filipino migrants by the US lackey Philippine government and the daily killings of anti-war and anti-globalization advocates in the Philippines, now spearheaded by the heavily-isolated and unpopular Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, cannot stop the growing movement in the Philippines and the movement of Filipino immigrants around the world for justice, democracy, and freedom from foreign domination.

We salute the US and foreign workers making history once again with the Great American Boycott II. Let us continue to unite all peoples against the US government's war against immigrants from its own backyard.

STOP THE RAIDS AND DEPORTATIONS!
LEGALIZATION FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS NOW!
LONG LIVE THE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MOVEMENT!
LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS!

MABUHAY ANG MIGRANTENG PILIPINO!

MayDay 2007

Call To Action!
May Day 2007 http://www.mayday2007.org/
National Mobilization to Support Immigrant Workers Rights!

A national day of multi-ethnic unity with youth, labor, peace and justice communities in solidarity with immigrant workers and building new immigrant rights & civil rights movement! Wear White T-Shirt, organize actions to support immigrant rights!


EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL WORKERS
END THE RAIDS & DEPORTATIONS
NO WORK, NO SCHOOL, NO SALES, NO BUYING

Rally & March Tuesday May 1
4:00 pm Union Square Park
14 St. & Broadway
(take # 4/5/6/L/N/Q/R/W trains to Union Sq.)

Marching to Federal Plaza/ Foley Square
(Site of the African Burial Ground)

- Money for human needs, not for war!
- Living wage and work for all!
- Health care, housing & education now!
- Protect all workers� rights to organize and strike!
- Legalization for all immigrants now!
- End I.C.E. deportations/raids and police murders!
- Shut down detention centers and end unjust imprisonments!

NYC May 1 Coalition
55 West 17 St., #5C, New York, NY 10011
or c/o Teamsters Local 808, 22-43 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
To endorse, and for more information: www.may1.info (646) 291-2778

A member of the
National May Day Movement for Worker & Immigrant Rights
www.maydaymovement.blogspot.com

http://www.maydaymovement.blogspot.com

KAPIHAN at KARAPATAN

Read about the recent human rights crisis in the Philippines in your newspaper?


Heard about the recent US Senate hearing on the escalation of politically-motivated killings, of which over 850 are children, students, journalists, trade unionists, lawyers, church workers, etc.?

Wonder why international human rights institutions such as Amnesty Int'l and Human Rights Watch are releasing urgent reports on the Philippines?

Curious why the United Nations Human Rights Council has the Philippines in its radar?

Concerned about 2007 election fraud in the Philippines and its relation to terrorism?

Join us for a....
KAPIHAN at KARAPATAN
Public info session on the human rights situation in the Philippines

Sunday, May 20th, 2007
11am to 1pm
Perlas Ng Silangan Restaurant
69-09 Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens
trains E,F,G,R,V,7 to 74th Street and Roosevelt Ave

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, ALL ARE WELCOME

Free coffee and community discussion on...


Amnesty International Report on the Philippines
Updates on US legislative advocacy efforts to stop the killings in the Philippines
Reports on the recent UN representative visit to the Philippines

sponsored by the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, nychrp@yahoo.com

Stop the Killings: NYC Edition

STOP THE KILLINGS TOUR - NYC EDITION
Friday: March 16, 2007
930pm -- party til 4am
@ M1-5 in Chinatown
$7 - 10 sliding scale
100% of all proceeds from the how will support the Philippine delegation to the Permanent People's Tribunal.



Performances by:
Geologic of Blue Scholars
Kwela and Calamity
Koba with DJ Boo
and Hanalei Ramos
[DJ Vettie Vett // DJ Joey Too Fresh // DJ Otis]



Did you know that 825+ people have been killed in the Philippines since 2001? Regular people...students, teachers, lawyers, workers, journalists, clergy, human rights workers, etc. Witnesses have pointed to elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in carrying out these killings. Yet not one person has been tried or convicted for any of these deaths.

President Arroyo's government has done nothing to stop to these atrocities. For us living in the U.S.A. it's a little sticky. The U.S. government has been providing excessive amounts of military aid to the Philippine government.That 's our tax dollars potentially subsidizing death squads of the Philippine military at the cost of the Filipino people. Come out to the show to learn a bit more about the issue and find out how you can get involved.

Directions:
M1-5 Bar (between Church and Broadway) // 21+
52 Walker Street
New York, NY 10013
Subway: A, C, E, N, R, 6 to Canal
(walk south on Broadway, make first right)

and then, another event: