MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY TO BAYAN ON ITS EIGHTH NATIONAL CONGRESS

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson

International League of Peoples’ Struggle

October 23, 2009

We of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)  welcome wholeheartedly the holding of the Eighth National Congress of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN). On this special occasion, we express our solidarity with the leadership and member-organizations of BAYAN and all the national sectoral and chapter delegates, including those from BAYAN-USA and BAYAN-CANADA and the BAYAN desks in Japan and Hong Kong.

We  are proud of  BAYAN as the strongest formation in the Philippine chapter of the ILPS.  We salute  BAYAN  for being  the most comprehensive and largest alliance of class, sectoral and issue-based forces that pursue the general line of struggle for genuine national independence and democracy against imperialism and local reaction.

It includes the toiling masses of workers and peasants and the middle social strata, the women, the youth and various types of professionals and the advocates of human rights, social reforms, just peace, healthy environment and other causes.  It has a comprehensive range of capabilities. It can rally the people to confront the most powerful adversaries, to surmount  the social disasters as well as the natural disasters that these aggravate and to fight and work for a new and better Philippines.

We congratulate you for all your victories in building your strength and in serving the people. We join you in anticipating that the congress will succeed in assessing and evaluating the five-year work of BAYAN from 2004 to 2009 and will be able to set forth the political and organizational tasks of rebuilding and strengthening the regional and provincial formations, which have borne the main brunt of fascist attacks.

We share with you the hope that the congress will pave the way for a meaningful and bountiful celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the founding of BAYAN as the main alliance of patriotic and progressive forces and as a powerful center of the national democratic movement in the Philippines.

We live today under the harsh conditions of the worst crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system since the end of World War II.  The broad masses of the people are undergoing terrible suffering. At the same time, they are being driven to wage struggles against their oppressors and exploiters.

The crisis conditions are favorable for BAYAN to arouse, organize and mobilize the Filipino people to fight for their own national and democratic rights and interests against foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.  We must seize every moment to expand and consolidate  the organized forces for the national and social, liberation of the people.

The global financial and economic crisis continues to worsen, contrary to the claims of recovery by the G-20.  The imperialist states cling to the dogma of “free market” globalization and pour out public funds to bail out the big banks and the big firms in the military-industrial complex that in the first place made the crisis. Thus, the imperialists cannot solve the crisis but aggravate it and are generating new financial bubbles.

The crisis relentlessly attacks the working people. The monopolies extract superprofits by further cutting down wage incomes and engaging in mass layoffs. Thus, mass consumption and the market continue to contract. The imperialist powers always try to pass the burden of crisis to the underdeveloped countries.  They use the crisis to further cheapen the exports of these countries, seize the natural resources,  expand the market and field of investments for monopoly firms and impose a heavier debt burden on the people.

The imperialist powers headed by the US persist in their global war of terror against the people of the world.  Together with puppet regimes, they use state terrorism to suppress the people and wage wars of aggression against countries assertive of their independence. They presume that they can overcome the crisis, their tendency to become protectionist and their  struggle for a redivision of the world by escalating the oppression and exploitation of the people of the world

The oppressed peoples and nations are more determined than ever before to wage revolutionary struggles for national liberation and democracy and look forward to a socialist future.  The working class in imperialist countries and elsewhere is pressed hard by the crisis to fight for immediate anti-imperialist and democratic aims and to perform its historic role of bringing about and building socialism.

Under the weight of the global financial and economic crisis, the crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system is accelerated and deepened.  Philippine exports of raw materials and low value-added semi-manufactures have shrunk.  Overseas contract workers are in less demand and remit less earnings to the country. Foreign credit has become scarce while the interest payments and amortization of the accumulated debt  are unbearable.  Even as the economy is depressed, the Arroyo regime keeps on increasing the tax burden and is using the tax revenues mainly for debt service, military expenditures and graft-ridden projects and programs.

Subservience to the US-dictated policy of “neoliberal globalization” has prevented national industrialization and land reform and has ruined agricultural production for domestic consumption.  The export-oriented and import-dependent enterprises are either closing down or reducing production. The rate of unemployment has risen steeply. The income level of the working people and middle class has gone down abruptly and yet the prices of basic commodities and services are soaring.

The broad masses of the people are in dire economic straits. Social unrest is widespread and rising in intensity.  The revolutionary forces  of the people are growing in strength and advancing. The socio-economic crisis is fuelling the political crisis of the ruling system.  The contradictions among the competing political factions of the ruling classes of big compradors and landlords are intensifying and becoming more bitter and violent because the ruling clique tends to monopolize the spoils of power and the opposition is quick to expose corruption and other wrongdoings.

The Arroyo regime has long unleashed state terrorism and perpetrated systematic and gross violations of human rights in a vain  attempt to suppress the growing armed revolutionary movement and intimidate the broad range of legal opposition forces, including the reactionary ones and the progressive ones spearheaded by BAYAN.  The regime has been emboldened to engage in the most despicable barbarities under Oplan Bantay Laya by the US-directed global war of terrorism and has allowed the permanent deployment of US military forces on Philippine territory under the Visiting Forces Agreement.

The campaigns of military and police suppression of the workers, peasants and national minorities and the abduction, torture and extra-judicial killing of social activists by the regime have merely served to incite the broad masses of the people to wage various forms of resistance and to isolate the regime internationally, thanks to the help of human rights organizations,  overseas Filipino communities and solidarity organizations.  The plan of the regime to defeat or reduce the revolutionary movement to inconsequentiality has utterly failed, as proven by the growing tactical offensives of the people’s army on a nationwide scale.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has engaged in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines  (GRP) for many years. But the GRP  has paralyzed said negotiations for more than 95 percent of  the  time by trying to put aside the negotiations on social, economic and political reforms and maneuver the NDFP towards capitulation and pacification within the framework of disarming and demobilizing the people’s army and preserving the semicolonial and semifeudal system of oppression and exploitation.

The Arroyo ruling clique has given up the scheme to amend the 1987 constitution in order to adopt a parliamentary system and keep itself in power.  While the 2010 elections are in sight, there are fears of the opposition that the ruling clique will cause a breakdown of the automated system of the elections, declare a failure of elections and run a caretaker government.

It is more likely that the Arroyo ruling clique will favor its own slate of candidates under the banner of Lakas-KAMPI and put side bets on one more presidential candidate and lower candidates who belong to other parties in exchange for the  nonprosecution and condonation of Arroyo, her family and cronies for their crimes of plunder and human rights violations. The  ruling clique is worried that the candidates of its own party would lose in the elections.

Until now,  the  presidential candidates or political parties of the reactionary classes  present themselves as rivals in a personality-based popularity contest.  Those on the opposition side merely claim to be for good governance against the regime’s record of corruption, incompetence and repression. They have not put forward comprehensive political statements or political programs that present the basic political, socio-economic, cultural and ecological problems of the people and offer the basic reforms to be undertaken.

The patriotic and progressive forces  of the people like BAYAN and its member-organizations can take the moral high ground and  clarify  what are the principles and policies that ought to be adopted and implemented in serving the people.  Makabayan which is the people’s democratic coalition and the progressive party list groups are the forces that directly engage in the electoral struggle by fielding candidates, slating them and campaigning for them.

Even if not registered by the Comelec, Makabayan is an effective electoral alliance  distinctive for having  a clear program and a large active mass base. It is formidable in a political landscape in which there is a big but discredited ruling reactionary party and too many small reactionary opposition parties. It can play the highly significant role of selecting and supporting the candidates that take up the national and democratic rights of the people and at the same inspiring and rallying the people to support and elect such candidates.

All the patriotic and progressive forces of the people must willfully and vigorously make the following demands in the course of the mass movement, including the electoral campaign: uphold national independence against the dominance and dictates of the imperialist powers headed by the US; realize democracy through the empowerment of the working people and respect for human rights; develop the economy through national industrialization and land reform; promote a national , scientific and mass culture; protect the environment from imperialist plunder and destruction; and pursue an independent foreign policy for world peace and development.

These demands must  be elaborated and expressed in full against the concrete factors and conditions that are inimical to the rights and interests of the people.  We must do away with the unequal treaties, agreements and arrangements in economic, political, military and cultural terms.  We must end  the system and processes that exclude and oppress the working people.  We must put a stop to the plundering of our human and natural resources by the foreign monopolies, the big compradors and landlords.  We must repudiate the ideas and patterns of behavior arising from imperialist and feudal culture.  We oppose the imperialist and local reactionary ravagers of the environment.

BAYAN must do its best to take up the basic demands of the people and the burning issues of the day.  Without any respite, it must arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the people to fight for their national and democratic rights and interests.  You and the people must overcome the violence and deception that the adversary unleashes to stop, derail or limit what you can accomplish towards a fundamental change of society.  From the struggle itself, you and the people learn how to solve problems, hurdle the obstacles, gain strength and advance.

We of the ILPS wish your congress the utmost success.  May it succeed in summing up your experience, identifying the strengths to enhance and the weaknesses and difficulties to overcome and setting forth the tasks that will bring you to a new and higher level of unity, all-round strength and militant service to the people.  We  look forward to  further significant victories of BAYAN on time for its  25^th founding anniversary and in all the years to come.###

New appeal for victims of Typhoon Parma – Bayan seeks justice!

Some  areas that were devastated by Typhoon Ketsana (local name, Ondoy) have not even been reached yet and already new reports of deaths, flooding and landslides brought on by the lingering Typhoon Parma (local name, Pepeng) have been circulating.  This time, the disasters in the Northern regions of Luzon are clearly exacerbated by destructive activities further degrading environmental conditions such as large scale mining, clear-cutting of forests and big damn projects that the people of Cordillera have been fighting all along.  Please see attached appeal from the Cordillera People’s Alliance and Bayan’s press release below.

urgent appealoct10

News Release October 10, 2009 Bayan seeks probe of large-scale mining, dam operations in Northern Luzon The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today called on the Arroyo government to probe the large-scale mining operations in the province of Benguet which may have aggravated the effects of typhoon Pepeng. Massive landslides hit the province since Monday when the storm made its second landfall.  The group also is pushing for a probe into the San Roque Dam’s release of water which is said to be responsible for the massive flooding in Pangasinan. According to reports by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), Bayan’s regional chapter, as many as 121 may have died in landslides in Benguet , 54 in Baguio City with 5 still missing and 23 in Mountain Province with 32 still missing. The CPA says a total of 18 landslides were documented, 11 in Baguio City, 6 in Benguet and 1 in Mountain Province. Among the communities affected by landslides are the Mankayan and Itogon municipalities in Benguet. These are also known mining areas. The same is the case with Tublay town, which was also a mining community. Bayan and the CPA have launched a relief drive along with continuing rescue operations in some areas. The groups have long assailed large-scale corporate mining operations in the region as being environmentally disastrous for the community, causing denudation of forests and soil erosion. Benguet for example has hosted large mines for over a century now and has a history of deadly landslides. It is particularly vulnerable during typhoons. Bayan is calling for a probe to determine the effects of the nearby mining operations on the landslides. “When the rescue and relief work is done, the Arroyo government should have political will to investigate the causes of the landslides and floods. The devastation that happened in Northern Luzon is a bitter  wakeup call on the effects of mining and dams in the region. Extractive industries such as mining cause irreparable environmental destruction,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. “What we saw last Friday is terrifying reminder of the extent of the environmental damage that has been done to the region. There should be a stop to the destructive large-scale corporate mining,” he added. In the past, Bayan and the CPA have also opposed the construction and operation of the San Roque Dam. They say that any flood control capacity would be undermined by the great possibility that the dam will silt up immediately. When filled with sediments, the dam would no longer be able to hold much water except to run its turbines. According to the CPA, “during its operational lifespan of 50 years, the SRD can be expected to collect a total of 269 million cubic meters of sediment from upstream sources including abandoned open pit mines, mineral tailings, muck waste dumps and denuded mountain slopes of the southern Benguet mining district.” The group also said that the steady silt build-up “will induce upstream flooding along the Agno river and its tributaries.” This they say will result in downstream flooding of at least 1,250 square kilometers of land every time torrential rains force the opening of the dam’s gate. The CPA’s study showed that the maximum flood rate can be as much as 12,800 cubic meters per second. Bayan believes that both structural and management issues of the San Roque Dam should be looked into. “Government should determine if structurally, the dam indeed functions as a flood control system or if it is really a profit-driven venture that has compromised the safety of the nearby communities. The probe should also check if the operators of the dam should have gradually released water earlier, given available data of consistently rising water levels,” Reyes said. “The opposition to the San Roque Dam has long been brought to the attention of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Studies from the Cordillera activists and environmental groups have been forwarded to her office when she assumed power,” he added. Bayan’s Bayanihan Alay sa Sambayanan (BALSA) is coordinating relief effort with the Serve the People Brigade-Cordillera Disaster Response based in Baguio City. ###

Toronto fundraiser for Filipino workers and Tropical Storm Ondoy a great success!

News Release
October 1, 2009

Toronto, Canada — The dinner-and-dance fundraiser to support the activities and programs of the Crispin B. Beltran Resource Center [CBBRC] here was a great success.

Over a hundred people attended the event on Saturday, September 26, at the Holy Rosary Parish Hall.  “It’s amazing to see how people came in flocks despite bad weather conditions during the day,” said Filipino Migrant Workers’ Movement (FMWM) chair Jonathan Canchela.  “I believe that it was the purpose or the reason behind the event that encouraged people to come out and support it.”

The event, dubbed as Say Mo Bayan Ko… You Think We Can’t Dance?, was aimed at raising funds to support the CBBRC programs which include labour rights education, legal defense, various forms of civic action and social services, livelihood projects and skills training, and international solidarity.  It was also intended to raise money for future FMWM projects that include community outreach campaign, migrant rights education, and research activities.

Part of the short program was a presentation of CBBRC’s program of actions while a slide show of Ka Bel’s photos taken during his visit to Canada last year played in the background.

While most people were upbeat during the event, there was a feeling of grief in the air over the news of the death and destruction caused by tropical storm Ondoy [international name: Ketsana] due to massive flooding and landslides in many parts of the Philippines.  “This truly is heartbreaking for all of us thinking that hundreds of people have died and thousands of families have been affected,” says Canchela, who led the blessing before dinner and invited the people for a moment of silence to remember the typhoon victims.

“What is more tragic is the inability on the part of the different Philippine government agencies to efficiently respond to this type of calamity, especially in doing the search and rescue operations.  Many could have been easily saved from raging flood and rooftops if rescue teams have enough equipment like rubber boats.”

According to a National Disaster Coordinating Council report, the latest number of casualties is 240, mostly from the National Capital Region and Region IV-A or CALABARZON area, which is composed of five provinces namely, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.  The total number of people affected has reached 1.8 million.

“Our sympathies are with kababayans who lost family members and friends in this distressing typhoon,” says Cathy Carpio, chair of the Finance Committee and over-all head of the fundraiser.  “In times like this we need to have the will to help our compatriots back home. While we need to provide them immediate relief, more important are the rehabilitation and empowerment efforts that should follow.  These efforts should include all-round community participation and cooperation towards self reliance, and education regarding not only the natural but also the structural causes of such calamities and the destruction that they bring.”  Sadly though,” she adds, “it is these elements that are the most neglected if not totally ignored by government and traditional institutions.”

The FMWM Executive Committee has decided to donate part of the proceeds from the fundraiser to Operation Sagip Migrante administered by the Migrante Sectoral Partylist [MSP] for families heavily affected by typhoon.

FMWM is now working with other Migrante-Ontario member organizations and Bayan Canada, Migrante Sectoral Partylist-Canada, and United Church in Canada in a relief effort campaign called Bayanihan Para sa Sambayanan or BALSA by collecting financial support for the typhoon victims.  We are also soliciting donations of canned goods, medicines and clothes.  For more information, please call Jonathan Canchela at 647-833-1023, or email us at fmw.movement@yahoo.ca.

“We would like to thank everyone who attended the dinner and dance event, the different organizations as well as our members and supporters and those who played a role in making the event such a success,” says Carpio.

“We are hoping that people will keep on supporting our activities as we continue our work in educating, organizing and mobilizing Filipino migrant workers and their families.” ##

Reference: Jonathan Canchela, Chairperson.  Phone: 647.833.1023

BAYAN Canada appeals for help for Typhoon Ondoy victims

September 28, 2009

For immediate release

Photo taken from KMU office by New Zealand volunteer, Luke Coxan

BAYAN Canada and all its allied organizations appeals to Canadians, especially the Filipino-Canadian community to join “Bayanihan para sa Sambayanan” (Peoples Cooperation for People) relief efforts for tropical storm “Ondoy” victims, which battered Metro Manila and nearby provinces on September 26 and left over 140 people dead and thousands of submerged houses and damaged properties.

Member organizations of BAYAN Canada have begun with its BALSA or “Bayanihan para sa Sambayanan” efforts by collecting financial support for the relief efforts in the Philippines. BALSA is a BAYAN-initiated network put up more than 10 years ago to concentrate on relief for victims of natural and man-made disasters in the Philippines.

Filipino-Canadian elected officials from Winnipeg to Vancouver have already solicited the support of their provincial governments and are now preparing to mobilize broader Canadian support for the victims of Ondoy.  Meanwhile, Filipino-Canadian church people have also called on their communities to donate what they can.

Migrante International on the other hand, calls for the “bayanihan” (cooperation and unity) spirit of all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Administered by the Migrante Sectoral Partylist (MSP), operation “Sagip-Migrante” (migrant rescue) is helping to facilitate the smooth remittance of the relief funds and goods to the right people.  OFWs are called modern-day heroes for the billions of dollars they remit to their homeland in support of their families.  The ability of OFW’s to collect donations for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy will go a long way in combating the disease, hunger and displacement due to the aftermath of the floods.

Unlike the Philippine government’s slow response to the disaster, Filipinos in Canada are getting organized while material support for the flood victims have begun to flow as fast as the flood waters rose.

Receding flood waters expose more than the dead

Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) brought rains of 341 millimetres (mm) in the first six hours that it struck Metropolitan Manila on Saturday, breaking the highest 24-hour rainfall of 334 mm in Metropolitan Manila in June 1967, according to the Philippines’ weather forecasting bureau.  In comparison, Hurricane Katrina dumped 250 mm of rain on New Orleans in 2005.

North American reports say that at least 140 persons were killed and nearly 450,000 families were displaced by massive flooding, but these numbers are rising while the storm flood itself begins to recede.  The receding waters are also exposing the inadequacy of the Philippine government in its capacity to respond to these natural and man-made disasters.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has only thirteen rubber boats to respond to the thousands of cries for help from people who were stuck on rooftops for over twelve hours under the cold and rain, without food.  The Philippine government doesn’t even have radar for the weather bureau to accurately indicate the amount of rainfall of the said typhoon.

The tens of thousands of US dollars spent on Arroyo’s dinner forays with her entourage in Washington DC and New York earlier this summer could have been more wisely spent on much needed rescue equipment.

Where to give help

You can connect your local church effort with the churches in the Philippines, particularly through the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (http://www.nccphilippines.org/) who have been consistent in ensuring that help gets to those who need it the most.

The Philippine Solidarity Network in Canada has been a long-time partner of the NCCP and other Philippine organizations, especially in its work around Human Rights in the Philippines.  The PSNC national coordinator, Malcolm Guy, can be reached in Montreal at (514) 574-9906 or email him at capcpc@web.ca.

People can get in touch with the following BAYAN Canada and Migrante organizations through the following contacts:

BAYAN Canada at bayan.canada.noc@gmail.com

Migarante International Canadian chapter at migrantecanada@gmail.com

Migrante Sectoral Party coordinator in Canada, Jonathan Canchela at (647) 833-1023 or email at migrantepartylist.toronto@gmail.com

BAYAN Canada contacts in major Canadian cities:

Montreal – Joey Calugay, cell (514) 947-3662

Ottawa – Yasmeen Maryam, cell (613) 558-1625

Toronto – Diwa Marcelino, cell (416) 809-3492

Winnipeg – Jomay Amora-Mercado, cell (204) 509-2491

Red Deer – Aubrey Makilan, cell (403) 392-7178

Vancouver – Beth Dollaga, (604) 320-0285

“Never again to Martial Law in the Philippines”

September 21, 2009

For immediate release

BAYAN Canada launches awareness campaign

BAYAN Canada demo at a busy intersection in Tronto

“Never again to Martial Law in the Philippines”

To mark the 37th anniversary declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Canada member organizations are holding rallies, study sessions, coffee house discussions, public fora and photo exhibits in different cities in Canada.

Throughout the week, BAYAN Canada member organizations will be holding events in different cities under the theme “Never again to Martial Law in the Philippines.”

Members of Migrante Youth hold up photos of HR victims during Toronto rally

In Toronto, BAYAN Canada organizations mark the day by holding a rally at a busy intersection where many Filipino owned businesses are located.  The demonstrators paid special tribute to the victims of extra-judicial killings under the current Macapagal-Arroyo regime by holding up several photos of victims. Many people joined the rally after seeing the advertisement that was placed in a local community paper by the BAYAN Canada groups.  A cultural gathering featuring short films, songs and music was held later in the evening. The event was highlighted by the sharing of stories from individuals who experienced first-hand Martial Law under the Marcos dictatorship.

In Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver, a “Peace Tour” is currently on its way with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) leader and peace negotiator Coni Ledesma. Aside from highlighting the unabated human rights abuses in the homeland and the 2010 national elections, the tour also aims to inform the public that there are

NDFP Coni Ledesma at a public forum in Winnipeg

alternatives being put forward to end the roots of armed conflict in the Philippines.  Organizers point at the generals and militarists who support the idea of the current administration staying in power precisely because they enjoy a culture of impunity under the Arroyo regime.  BAYAN Canada and its allies directly blame the militarists under the current administration for hindering the immediate resumption of peace talks with the NDFP.

Meanwhile in Montreal, BAYAN groups are holding educational discussions on the history and basic problems of the Philippines and the National Democratic alternative to the

Independent Journalist Stefan Christoff with Coni Ledesma in front of Sablo Kafé photo exhibit

current conditions in the country.  A coffee house discussion is also being organized about the possibility of another Martial Law under the Arroyo regime.  The coffee house discussion will be held in Sablo Kafé where there is a photo exhibit taking place entitled “Movements in Manila”.   The exhibit features scenes in Tondo as well as portraits of activists from people’s organizations taken during the 2004 mid-term elections by Montreal independent journalist Stefan Christoff.

“BAYAN allied organizations are doing the important work of educating mass members, friends, allies and their communities in Canada to remain vigilant and committed to ensuring that Martial Law or other Marcosian rule in the Philippines never happens again,” says BAYAN Chairperson Dr. Chandu Claver.

September 21, 1972 is a dark period in Philippine history when the United States-backed Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. The dictatorship marked more than a decade reign of military terror that saw mass abductions, arrests, torture and detention of political opponents and activists that resisted it.

During the US-Marcos regime, there was an estimated 70,000 accounts for the victims of extra-judicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearance. Of this figure, 3,257 were executed and 769 were disappeared.

In the Philippines, in less than a decade under the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime, there have been more than 1,000 cases of extra-judicial killings, 202 enforced disappearances, 1,036 torture, and 223 political prisoners.

According to human rights watchdog Karapatan, “Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a new dictator, who along with her cohorts has put the nation under an undeclared martial law for almost a decade.”

“With the Arroyo regime hell-bent on staying in power beyond the 2010 presidential elections, the people have

BAYAN Canada's Diwa Marcelino with a photo of Alice Claver

every right to fear a return of Marcosian-type rule in the country,” explains Dr. Claver, who himself experienced the iron-hand of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime in an ambush that killed his wife, Alice, in 2006.

“We must do everything within our power, whether we are in the Philippines or abroad, Filipinos, as well as all democratic and peace loving people, to frustrate the plans of US imperialism’s most favoured puppet in South-East Asia,” he added.

For more information contact BAYAN Canada at bayan.canada.noc@gmail.com.

Reference: Joey Calugay, secretary general at jcalugay@gmail.com

Migrante groups in Canada to push forward their demands

Migrante-Ontario

Press Release

September 14, 2009

*Photos care of Migrante Ontario

Pushing for fundamental changes in the Live-in Caregiver Program

Reaction to Government of Canada’s response to proposed recommendations by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration

Migrante-Ontario is extremely disappointed at the Conservative Government of Canada’s response to the recommendations presented by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in its May 2009 report Temporary Foreign Workers and Non-Status Workers.

In its response released August 19th, the Conservative Government issued a sweeping blow against the hope of many foreign temporary workers including live-in caregivers.  The Government through Minister Jason Kenney of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, outlined its strong opposition to proposed changes in the Live-in Caregiver Program.

The government has opposed the following vital recommendations of the Standing Committee: 1) “provide for a possible one-year extension of the three-year period during which a live-in caregiver must complete 24 months of employment in order to be eligible to apply for permanent resident status;” 2) the implementation of the “Juana Tejada Law;” and the 3) removal of the ‘live-in’ requirement.

This almost blanket opposition to vital recommendations reflects the government’s lack of understanding of what caregivers have been going through all these years.  It was a slap on the face of all caregivers who suffered and are suffering from cruel conditions that LCP brings.  By opposing the proposed fundamental changes, the government has done a great disservice to the most vulnerable workers in Canadian society.

The Conservative Government also opposed the possibility of granting all foreign temporary workers a “pathway to permanent residency” arguing that “labour needs are not all permanent” and “some other needs fluctuate with the economy and are sometimes unpredictable.”

We think however that the government fails to see the importance of labour in the context of human necessity.  We need to understand that many of these foreign workers have left their country in search of a better life in Canada, hoping that they would stay long enough to provide for their families.  If the government does not provide them with the opportunity of becoming permanent residents, many of them may just soon go back again to ground zero in terms of providing their families even with very basic needs.  This minority government should stop treating its foreign temporary workers like disposable goods.

Many caregivers and advocates including us were thrilled when the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration released its recommendations last May followed by another report in June entitled Migrant Workers and Ghost Consultants.  The timing then was perfect as it happened after the Ruby Dhalla scandal.  But we know that a lot of politics comes into play in the process of pushing for policy reforms in the legislative setting.  We also understand that the reports need the approval of the majority in the House of Commons.

But the hopes that caregivers and advocates have clung to for a long time may just have been dashed once more.  With the negative response from the Harper government, the fate of the two landmark reports has become unclear.  The impending threat of election makes it more difficult for caregivers and advocates to expect the passage of the reports.

Should there be an election soon, we can expect the various political leaders to include the issue of fundamental changes to the LCP in their platforms.  They will take this opportunity to commit to certain reforms in favour of caregivers and other foreign temporary workers.

Pushing for the Juana Tejada Law

For us – the community – this is a time to reassert our basic demands such as to allow caregivers to come as landed immigrants without conditions; implement the “Juana Tejada Law” or the removal of the second medical exam when caregivers apply for permanent residence; make the work permit job-specific instead of employer specific; and remove the mandatory live-in requirement.  This is a time for us to insist on solid commitments from the candidates, and to make a case against political leaders who deal with us through false and broken promises. ##

Reference:

Maru Maesa

Spokesperson

Tel: 416-831-3372

VFA foes ask SC for inspection of US camps, re-opening of oral arguments

News Release

September 8, 2009

Groups opposed to the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement today filed a Supplemental Motion for Consideration in relation to a petition pending before the Supreme Court that seeks to declare the agreement unconstitutional.

In their supplemental motion, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Gabriela and Bayan Muna and other cause-oriented groups asked the Supreme Court to allow “the reception of evidence pertaining to the permanent and continuous presence of U.S. troops and their involvement in combat operations in the Southern Philippines by a justice of the Court of Appeals as designated by the SC”. The groups are also seeking the “inspection of the camps, facilities and places mentioned in the affidavit of Mary Nancy P. Gadian where the U.S. troops have maintained a permanent and continuous presence since 2002”. Finally, the groups asked the SC to call for oral arguments on the matters covered in the motion.

The supplemental motion comes in the wake of an affidavit executed by former Navy Lt. Senior Grade Nancy Gadian on the permanent and continuing presence of US troops. In her affidavit, Gadian describes the permanent and temporary structures set up by the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines since 2002 in Mindanao. She also claims that US troops are embedded in AFP combat units and thus are engaged in actual combat.

Bayan et al are represented by their counsels Dean Pacifico Agabin and Atty. Evalyn Ursua, formerly the counsel of Subic rape victim “Nicole”. The petitions vs the VFA have been consolidated and include the petition filed by former senator Jovito Salonga and Wigberto Tanada and an earlier petition by Subic rape victim “Nicole”.

The supplemental motion also mentions the announcement of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the JSOTF-P stationed in Mindanao will stay in the country indefinitely. The petitioners said that this was an admission of the permanent and continuous presence of US forces in the country made possible by the vague provisions of the VFA.

The group also cited the US Army Field Manual in its discussion of combat operations where combat intelligence and surveillance are considered part of the “Battlefield Operating System” of US forces. The US forces in Mindanao have admitted to providing support for the AFP in the capture and neutralization of so-called “high-value targets”.

“With the Executive refusing to heed the call to review and terminate the VFA, we hope that the Judiciary can be the one to rectify the serious wrongs committed in the 10 years the agreement has been in effect. Even the Chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee has realized these serious violations of the Constitution. We hope the High Court takes note of the of the statements of Gates and the affidavit of Gadian. These are very substantial developments in the case vs the VFA,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. ###

Statement on the deaths of Fr. Lucero and Romulo Mendova

BAYAN Canada vehemently condemns and laments the ruthless killing of peasant activist Romulo Mendova and Fr. Cecilio Lucero, the priest of the people, staunch peace advocate and an apostle for human rights. Both men were based in Eastern Visayas.

Romulo Mendova was shot dead On Sept. 5, at around 4 p.m by two motorcycle riding men wearing bonnets to disguise their identity.  Mendova was active in the local chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines).  Before the incident, Mendova was summoned twice by military officials to go to their camp. The military officials were trying to link Mendova to a recent raid conducted by the New People’s Army. Mendova vehemently refused and denied all allegations.  He was with his wife and colleague when the attack happened.

Father Cecilio Lucero, parish priest of Catubig, Samar is a member of the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR). He is also the chairman of the Committee on Human Rights and chairman of the Task Force Peace and Order of the Diocese of Catarman, an initiative of the diocese with multi-sectoral partnership. Just several days after the shooting death of Mendova, Fr. Lucero was brutally killed by some thirty men in Sitio Puente, Barangay Lahuyan, San Jose town, Northern Samar. The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) reported that he sustained gunshot wounds in the head and other parts of the body.  He was the first priest to have been murdered in Samar since Catholicism was introduced in the province 400 years ago.

According to Philippine-based human rights group Karapatan, 25 church people (priests, etc) have been killed from January 21, 2001 to December 31, 2008.  Lucero’s death will be adding to this number. Also, within the same period, there have been 95 extra-judicial killings and 26 enforced disappearances in the region of Eastern Visayas alone, where Lucero and Mendova were assassinated.

BAYAN Canada holds Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directly responsible for the death of Fr. Lucero. It was reported that Arroyo publicly denounced Lucero “as that communist priest” in front of General Arthur Tabaquero and other high civilian and military officials at the inauguration of Catubig Bridge on June 16, 2009. “Arroyo’s public red-baiting of Fr.  Lucero gave the go signal for her militarist minions to kill him in line with Oplan Bantay Laya [Military counter insurgency: Operation Freedom Watch],” explains BAYAN Canada Chairman, Dr. Chandu Claver.

“We condemn the institutions and individuals that are responsible for these unspeakable atrocities. The fascist agents of President Gloria Arroyo make no exception in killing church people who practice the preferential option for the poor. Not even the religious leaders are spared from this wave of state-sponsored terrorism against the people, despite calls from within and outside the country to stop the killings,” says Dr. Claver.

If indeed, Fr. Lucero was killed by the Philippine military on suspicion he is “a communist priest,” then Fr. Lucero rightfully belongs to history as a contemporary martyr who dared to challenge the validity and legitimacy of a dehumanizing, established order.  If the deaths of Lucero and Mendova were but an occurrence of barbaric shootings, then, they are one among the many countless victims of a regime which has no regard for life.

Fr. Lucero’s and Romulo Mendova’s exemplary lives and the manner in which they died serving the people will be a burning flame to a people’s struggle for justice, freedom and national democracy!

For reference: Beth Dollaga – BAYAN Canada NOC, bayan.canada.noc@gmail.com

BAYAN CANADA’S OPEN LETTER TO GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO

20 August 2009

H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

President of the Republic

Malacanang Palace,

JP Laurel St., San Miguel

Manila Philippines

Mrs. President,

BAYAN CANADA, an alliance of progressive Filipino organizations in Canada, has been informed of the violent dispersal and mass arrest of youth and student protesters who held a lightning rally in Mendiola last Wednesday, 19 August 2009.

According to reports, Members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and Manila Police District violently attacked and dispersed protesters using nightsticks, arbitrarily arresting 20 and injuring 17 students from Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of the Philippines-Diliman and some high schools.

Among the victims of the said violent dispersal and illegal detention were:

1.      Mark Gil Gamido, 17 y/o, ANAKBAYAN Culiat High School chapter

2.      Likha Gaia Flores, 16y/o, ANAKBAYAN member

3.      Jessa Dulay, League of Filipino Students member

4.      Karl Villaseñor, Anakbayan

5      Yasmin Ongay, member Anakbayan University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman

6.     Charmaine Guevarra, member Anakbayan, UP Diliman

7.     Michael Non, member League of Filipino Students, UP Diliman

8.     Lia Torres, member Anakbayan UP Diliman

9.     Warren Guttierez, member League of Filipino Students, UP Diliman

10.   Allan de Guzman, member League of Filipino Students, UP Diliman

11.   Absolom Eligio, member League of Filipino Students, UP Diliman

12.   Abriel Mansilungan, Kabataan Partylist member, Polytechnic University of the  Philippines (PUP)

13. Kimberly Salas, member Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP),   PUP

14.   Giemma Canalis, member SCMP-PUP

15.   Elvin Rillo, PUP student

16.   Lea Jamayan, member League of Filipino Students, PUP

17.   Andrew Alejo, Anakbayan PUP member

18.   Ana Isabel Manalang, PUP student

19.   Anton Perdigon, College Editors Guild of the Philippines member

20.   Nida Grefaldo, College Editors Guild of the Philippines member

News footage from GMA Network’s 24 Oras and Saksi showed that some members of the dispersal unit used excessive force by punching and kicking the protesters and dragging them over the asphalt even after they were arrested.

Reports also said that the PSG held the arrested students for almost one hour inside the Gate 7 premises and refused entry to paralegals who wanted to check on the well-being of the students. The arrested students were later brought to the Hospital ng Maynila for medico-legal check-up and then to the Manila Police District Headquarters where they were detained for illegal assembly without being read their Miranda Rights.

According to youth organizers, around 200 members of Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students (LFS), College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) held a lightning rally in front of the Gate 7, Malacañang Palace to show Malacañang their disgust over the expensive dinners that Her Excellency and her entourage, including more than 20 administration congressmen, had during her visit in the United States early this month.

The youth groups were referring to the expensive dinner Her Excellency and her group had in Le Cirque in New York which was reportedly amounting to more than $20,000. As you are aware of, this report had earned the ire of the entire Filipino nation, Filipino compatriots abroad, including the various youth groups who believe that it was a reflection of your administration’s insensitivity to the hunger and poverty experienced by most Filipinos today.

Furthermore, we wish to point out to Her Excellency, that while she was having her expensive dinners just south of Canada’s border, thousands of Filipino migrants and immigrants working in Canada feeling the world economic crisis were scraping together what they can to send money back to their families and relatives in their homeland.

BAYAN CANADA strongly believes that the students’ protest was a valid exercise of the right of the people to hold accountable the President for the alleged misuse of public funds, thus violent action of the PSG and police were beyond justification.

BAYAN CANADA would like to reiterate the Filipino people’s right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of their grievances, as guaranteed by Article III, Section 4 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

BAYAN CANADA would also like to stress the failure of the Manila Police District officers to inform the students of their rights upon arrest is a clear violation of Article III, Sec. 12. (1) of the Philippine Constitution which states that “any person under investigation for the commission of an offense shall have the right to be informed of his right to remain silent and to have competent and independent counsel preferably of his own choice.”

In this regard, we demand an immediate investigation of the violent dispersal of student protesters in Mendiola, Manila last August 19, 2009 resulting in the injury of 17 students and the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of 20 students.

We demand that members of the PSG and the Manila Police District involved in the violent dispersal and arbitrary arrests be subjected to penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided by law.

We would also like to remind the Philippine Government that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments’ provisions.

We expect the Philippine Government to take immediate measures to ensure that the rights of the Filipino citizens are, at all times, upheld and protected.

We will continue to monitor your administration’s actions on this matter.

Sincerely,

Joey Calugay

Secretary General

BAYAN CANADA

HUNGER AND DISGUST FUEL DISSENT

BAYAN CANADA STATEMENT

20 August 2009

“I ask our people to spend on the basics first before the luxuries so our children will have enough to eat,” President Arroyo made this statement just two years ago in Tarlac when she advised Filipino families to spend their money wisely even as she assured that the government was taking the problem of household hunger seriously.

Arroyo forgot she had said this, nay, she never believed it in the first place! Imagine the Philippine President and her band of 20 loyal members of Congress and supporters as they stuffed themselves full on the $20,000 dinner at Le Cirque in New York and then on the following night, on a $15,000 steak and wine dinner at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in D.C. This pompous and ostentatious consumption is not only immoral and obscene, it is downright criminal!

The youth and students who demonstrated at the gates of Malacanang Palace yesterday, August 19, 2009, rightfully thought so too. However, the police and the military decided that the youth and students went too far with their banner waving and their speeches. These armed police and military elements attacked and assaulted the students with their nightsticks and batons, arrested them and have unjustly detained them.

BAYAN Canada, the alliance of progressive Filipino organizations in Canada, denounces the treatment of the 20 young men and women who were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and the 17 others who were injured by the police and military.  The youth and students were from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman and some high school students, who are members of the League of Filipino Students, Anakbayan Partylist, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), and the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP).  These demonstrators had the right to dissent and make their disgust known to Malacanang and the public.

Bayan Canada calls on the immediate investigation and prosecution of the military and police involved in the violent dispersal and arrests of the student and youth demonstrators.

“The shameless behaviour of the President and her entourage is truly criminal,” says Joey Calugay, Spokesperson of Bayan Canada, “more so when there are 2 million to 3.7 million Filipino families who go hungry regularly and have to scrounge for food in garbage bins, or when thousands of Filipinos are pushed to leave the country so their kids would not have to go hungry because no decent jobs can be had at home.”

This latest scandal is one more proof that President Gloria Arroyo has never cared about the Filipino people. She mocks the Filipino people’s hunger and poverty. She treats the people with contempt. Gloria Arroyo must go!