SiGAw! | SISTERS OF GABRIELA, AWAKEN!

May 30, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rhonda Ramiro, BAYAN-USA Secretary General, secgen@bayanusa.org

Down With State-Sponsored Hate and Racism!

BAYAN-USA Joins National Day of Action Against Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant SB 1070

[PHOENIX, AZ and SAN FRANCISCO, CA] — BAYAN-USA linked arms with allies across the country during a nationwide day of action against Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law SB 1070.  Members of BAYAN-USA boarded buses that caravanned hundreds of miles to Phoenix, Arizona, where tens of thousands of protestors marched five miles in 100-degree heat to the State Capitol to condemn SB 1070. “Arizona is ground zero for the immigrant rights movement, and the people here are fighting on the frontlines of struggle for immigrants in the US,” said BAYAN-USA Vice Chair Kuusela Hilo, who participated in the action.  Arizona is notorious for the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose racist and anti-immigrant tactics such as forcing immigrant prisoners to parade around in pink underwear and housing inmates in sweltering hot tent cities behind razor wire have earned lawsuits from civil rights organizations, and for vigilantism that has turned the Arizona-Mexico border into a graveyard for thousands of migrants.  “SB 1070 is nothing less than state-sponsored racism, as it legalizes racial profiling and imposes militarist law enforcement,” said Hilo.

BAYAN-USA also participated in a solidarity protest in San Francisco, where the Arizona Diamondbacks faced off in a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants.  “Ken Kendricks you can’t hide! We can see your racist side!” shouted protestors, referring to the Arizona Diamondbacks owner, who personally contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Arizona Republican Party which was responsible for pushing SB 1070 through the state legislature. “The Diamondbacks and Kendricks are bankrolling state-sponsored hate in Arizona,” said BAYAN-USA Secretary General, Rhonda Ramiro. “Protests will hound the Diamondbacks wherever they play, as immigrants around the country step up the fight to prevent the spread of SB 1070 copy-cat legislation.”

BAYAN-USA also echoed the calls for comprehensive immigration reform and legalization for all, an end to collaboration between local police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and to stop the skyrocketing deportations which have torn apart hundreds of thousands of families over just the past year.

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The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, is an alliance of 14 Filipino organizations across the US representing youth, students, women, workers, and human rights advocates. As the largest overseas chapter of BAYAN Philippines founded in 2005, BAYAN USA serves as an information bureau for the national democratic movement in the Philippines as well as a campaign center for anti-imperialist Filipinos in the United States. For more information, visit www.bayanusa.org.

Photos courtesy of BAYAN-USA Southwest Bev Tang, Apollo Victoria, and Rhonda Ramiro

News Release
May 25, 2010

Reference: Kuusela Hilo, Justice for Melissa Roxas Campaign,
email: info@justiceformelissa.org, website: www.justiceformelissa.org

On One-Year Anniversary of Melissa Roxas’ Abduction & Surfacing, Roxas and Supporters Still Seeking Justice

On the one year anniversary of Melissa Roxas’ surfacing in Quezon City after enduring six days of physical and psychological torture at the hands of her captors, who many believe to have been the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Roxas and her many supporters worldwide are still demanding for justice. The anniversary resonates for supporters of Roxas especially after the tumultuous national elections in the Philippines and the pronouncement of a new president scheduled to assume office just as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to step down by June 30th.

“One year after Melissa’s ordeal, she is still suffering from both physical and psychological trauma from the abuse she endured while in illegal detention,” states Kuusela Hilo of the Justice for Melissa Roxas Campaign. “Yet not one arrest has been made for the abduction of Melissa Roxas and her companions until now. Like thousands of other victims of human rights abuses committed under the Arroyo government, Melissa Roxas and her many supporters demand the immediate prosecution of Arroyo herself once she steps down. We challenge President-elect Aquino to do the conscionable thing and bring justice for Melissa and all victims of human right abuses in the Philippines.”

Roxas, an American citizen, was volunteering for a community medical mission in La Paz, Tarlac on May 19, 2009 when she was forcibly abducted at gunpoint along with her two companions, blindfolded, and thrown into a cell where she would endure her experience until finally being released on May 25th.

A writ of amparo filed by Roxas was eventually granted by the Philippine Court of Appeals, acknowledging the legitimacy of Roxas’ experience of abduction and torture, along with corroborating medical reports on her physical condition post-detention. But while some praised the high court’s decision to grant the writ of amparo, most criticized it for letting the respondents to the claim—including Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, and several high-ranking members of the AFP—off the hook, further illustrating the pervasive culture of impunity for known human rights abusers under the Philippine judicial system.

Since returning to Los Angeles in late 2009, Roxas, a human rights advocate and member of Habi Arts, has been active in speaking out publicly against her ordeal and on behalf of other victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances that have taken place under the Arroyo government’s counter-insurgency program known as Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL). Roxas has also filed complaints with the US State Department and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

“The reason why I tell my story is because it is also the story of many others, and it reflects the experience of many Filipinos who have been abducted and tortured in the Philippines. Not all of them have surfaced, not all of them have survived, and those who did have been afforded very few opportunities to speak about what happened to them,” Roxas stated in a visit to New York City last January.

The Justice for Melissa Roxas Campaign, initiated by friends and family of Roxas, along with allied groups, has been actively demanding to cut US military aid to the Philippines because of its role in enabling the Philippine military’s practice of human rights violations and state-sponsored terrorism. Arroyo’s OBL campaign has been widely-criticized by international human rights monitoring groups for targeting civilians.

For more information, visit www.justiceformelissa.org. ###

Reference: Rep. Luz Ilagan, Gabriela Women’s Party First Nominee,

“AES stands for Automated Elections Sabotage,” declared Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Luzviminda Ilagan, referring to the resulting technical foul-ups during COMELEC tests of the PCOS machines a mere four days before elections.

“It is beyond incompetence. It can not even be described as simple failure of technology. After COMELEC’s  super-confident proclamation that it was all systems go for the first automated election system, the shocking discovery that the machines were not working as expected,  has left the public aghast and suspicious that there is more to this development than mere mechanical aberrations.

“The COMELEC is clearly committing an unforgivable crime against the Filipino people with the imminent failure of the automated election system. Smartmatic is in collusion with COMELEC and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to pave the way for a massive failure of elections,” said Ilagan.

The militant lady legislator added that blocking the peaceful and credible holding of elections has always been part of Macapagal-Arroyo’ s grand schemes in her bid to stay in power after the president’s term ends in June 30.

Ilagan however warns that Filipinos will not take this disenfranchisement sitting down. “The people will have no more of the abomination in Malacañang.  Filipino voters are convinced that this sabotage of a nation-wide democratic exercise will mobilize people to take to the streets should their right to vote be violated.”

Ilagan, thus, calls on women and men voters to ensure that clean, honest and credible elections push through. “The people’s vigilance is the only way to triumph over any evil machinations of the Arroyo regime. On May 10, we must cast and protect our votes and rise in protest should our will be undermined and flagrantly violated.”

On May 8, Gabriela Women’s Party and GABRIELA will lead a women’s action in front of COMELEC to call for clean, honest and credible elections. The women’s groups will also set up protest centers all over the country where disgruntled voters can mass up should the May 10 elections fail. ###

Public Information Department
GABRIELA National Office
(+632) 3712302

For Immediate Release
May 6, 2010

Contact: Raquel Redondiez, Vice Chairperson, GABRIELA USA, chair@gabusa.org
Filipino-American Women Send A Mother’s Day Message: Elect Liza Maza & GWP!
Gabrielas in the U.S. Call On Their Motherland For A Clean and Honest Elections & To Vote For Progressive Women’s Partylist & Candidates

With less than a week before citizens of the Philippines cast their votes for the 2010 elections, Filipino-American mothers and daughters show their support for a partylist that has upheld and fought for the rights of women, children, and migrants – the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP). Members of GABRIELA USA put together a commercial, featuring a diverse cast of women: mothers, students, workers, community advocates and queer women, all pledging their support for GWP and its Senatorial candidate, Liza Maza.

“As Filipino-Americans, it’s important to us mothers and daughters that those who sit in government positions truly have the interest of the people in mind. Liza Maza and GWP have proven this with their history of creating breakthrough legislation that protect women and children and survivors of violence, and also co-authoring the bill allowing for overseas absentee voting. This is why this Mother’s Day weekend, we support GWP and Liza Maza,” says Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson of GABRIELA USA. “It is our hope that the commercial reaches our kababayans abroad and in the Philippines, and elect Liza Maza and the Gabriela Women’s Party.”

The commercial, uploaded onto Youtube, presents a multigenerational cast of women with diverse interests and issues. Donning “Maza ako” shirts, the women urge viewers to vote for senatorial candidate Liza Maza, and Gabriela Women’s Party. Although a number of the cast members cannot vote in the current elections themselves, it does not mean that they do not have a concern about its process or its outcome. Members of GABRIELA USA are calling and texting their friends, relatives, and kababayans in the Philippines on Mother’s Day to urge them to vote for GWP and Liza Maza, and are steadfast in ensuring a clean and honest election process.

To view the commercial, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAp3XX8Ygxk.

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