National Statement of Overseas Filipinos in Canada

Expose the True State of the Philippine Nation!:
Stop the Killings and End Political Repression Now!

July 24, 2006

Higher wages, jobs, education, land and rights. These are the basic demands of the common Filipino. These
are the demands of overseas Filipinos who were forcedto leave the Philippines in search of a better life.

As Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo prepares to deliver her annual State of the Nation
address (SONA) on July 24, 2006 we can expect her to report that the economy of the country is improving.
Despite Arroyo’s claims of the, “debt declining, fiscal reform working and political stability
growing,” the people know the true state of the nation.

Rising Prices

The meager minimum wage of P350 in the National Capital Region is not enough to meet the everyday
rising prices of cooking oil, electricity, water and basic commodities. IBON, an independent think tank
estimates the daily cost of living in the NCR for a family of six at P675.54 as of June 2006. Eight out of
ten families do not earn enough to meet their daily needs.

The majority of the population are peasants whose bare existence means struggling for survival toiling on
agricultural land not their own in a backward, exploitative semi-feudal and semi-colonial economy.
Massive layoffs, company closures, land grabbing and land use conversion which favour the interests of
foreign multinational corporations continues to cause widespread crushing poverty, internal and external
migration and social unrest.

Arroyo continues to use the Labour Export Policy to mitigate high unemployment and our $12 billion USD in annual remittances and the recent 20% increase in the Value Added Tax in order to prop up her ailing economy and gloss over the chronic economic crisis.

Political instability

In Arroyo’s SONA last year, she said economic and political stability would come from changing the
constitution through Charter Change or Cha-Cha. Despite her government’s aggressive attempt to push
through Cha-Cha in the last year through a massive signature drive, the so-called controversial “People’s
Initiative” was unsuccessful in convincing the people. Even Church and business sectors opposed it.

Arroyo recently said she will not be addressing Cha-Cha in her SONA this year and instead will be
promoting the “supra regions of growth and development.” Her, “No to Imperial Manila, Yes, to
Regional Development” slogan is merely Cha-Cha in different packaging. The people will not be easily
fooled by Arroyo’s fancy slogans and pretty packaging.

The people know that Arroyo’s real objective with the Cha-Cha is to fulfill the US’s agenda to open up the
economy even more to foreign interests, to pave the way for expanded entry of U.S. troops and military
weapons into the country and for Arroyo to remain in power beyond her mandated term. After the dismissal of an original impeachment complaint last year on a technicality, a new impeachment complaint has been initiated by more than 300 citizens, leaders and members of various people’s organizations, church groups and other individuals.

The impeachment complaint and the continued protests to Arroyo’s policies is proof that the Filipino people
will not cease to struggle until Arroyo is ousted from Malacañang.

Growing fascism

The worsening crisis has resulted in a growing people’s resistance. In an attempt to suppress any political dissent or opposition, in June this year Arroyo declared an “all-out war” on the Left. She lumped together the revolutionary forces of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and the entire progressive legal movement. The terrorist listings of the CPP-NPA and of revolutionary poet Prof. Jose Maria Sison have give Arroyo the license through her “Oplan Bantay Laya” (Operation Guarding Freedom) to openly target not only the revolutionary forces but also civilians, particularly leaders and members of progressive people’s organizations of the legal national democratic movement.

Arroyo’s brutal fascist character can be seen through her Calibrated Preemptive Response or CPR which bans rallies without permits, Executive Order 464 which placed a gag order on all government officials and PP1017 in February which declared a national state of emergency resulting in numerous violations of human rights and civil liberties including the bogus arrest of Rep. Crispin Beltran and criminal charges against duly elected progressive legislators and other leaders of people’s organizations critical of her regime.

According to Karapatan, in the span of five years under Arroyo there have been 705 extra-judicial killings of civilians and 181 involuntary disappearances. The Philippines is now the second most dangerous place for journalists (after Iraq) and trade unionists (after Colombia).

This chronic economic and political crisis pushes nearly 3000 Overseas Filipino Workers abroad daily in
search of a better life for themselves and their families.

Our reality in Canada

Once in Canada we often do the dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs that Canadians don’t want to do. We are
segregated into low-income work having the highest education of all immigrants but the lowest pay. The
majority of our community are women live-in caregivers who came to Canada under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Forced to work for at least two years in their employers’ homes, many women face all kinds of abuse. Increasingly many are also unable to meet the LCP’s strict requirements and despite their contributions to Canadian society and the economy are arbitrarily deported.

While migrant workers continue to serve as the milking cows of the Arroyo government, they are offered little
to no protection in times of crisis or need.

Laila Suan Elumbra, a live-in caregiver in Montreal is one such example. She faces deportation after falling
two months short of the required 24 months of live-in work within three years when she fell seriously ill
and remained in a coma in hospital for several months. She received little help from the Philippine Ambassador and had to rely on the community to support her case.

The Philippine Ambassador and Consul Generals are more interested in socializing with politicians and the
elite of our community than addressing the concerns and conditions of our community.
The recent visit of Philippine Vice-President Noli de Castro to Vancouver was an illustration of this.
Despite protesters outside and inside the event calling on de Castro and Philippine Consul General
Jean Minerva Falcon to denounce the rash of political killings and other rampant human rights abuses in the
Philippines, de Castro only talked about enhancing the Philippines’ labour deployment to Canada.
De Castro also tried to downplay the protests by lying to the Philippine media saying the protesters were all
youth who did not even recognize him as he passed by.

Canada meanwhile benefits greatly from our cheap labour and seeks to reap even more profit from
temporary and flexible labour of migrant workers. The Temporary Foreign Workers Program will continue to
exploit cheap, flexible and temporary labour without standard protection and opportunities to settle
permanently in Canada.

Despite needing our cheap labour, we as a visible minority community continue to be scapegoated for
Canada’s own crisis and victim to systemic and personal racism. With the recent hysteria over
“homegrown terrorism” we can expect an increase in racist incidents and racial profiling, especially of
our youth.

Time for change

 As our conditions in Canada and the Philippines worsen, the Filipino people’s desire for genuine
change grows. After decades of resistance and several people powers, the movement to oust Arroyo and to
oppose Charter Change has broadened. Filipinos at home and abroad are actively discussing the viable option of a transitional council once Arroyo is ousted which would be made up of the anti-Arroyo forces and which would pave the way for the next elections.

At the June 21 Conference “Prospects for Peace, Human Rights, and Democracy: Canadians Answer the Filipino People’s Call for Support and Solidarity”, held in Vancouver, over 70 Filipino, Canadian and
international participants resolved to carry out a campaign to call for a stop to the killings in the
Philippines and for the resumption of peace talks.

They agreed to hold nationally-coordinated days of action on July 24 (SONA) and September 21 (Anniversary of Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law); and to launch a North American Fact Finding Mission in the Philippines in November, 2006.

As Filipinos in Canada let us call for a stop to the political killings and repression and support the
Filipino people’s struggle for national democracy, freedom and a just and lasting peace in our homeland.

No to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Charter Change!
No to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s All-out War!
Resume the Peace Negotiations!
Stop the Killings in the Philippines!
Justice to the Victims of State Terrorism!
Pahirap sa Migrante! Patalsikin si GMA!
Oust Philippine President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!
 
Statement issued by:
[National] National Alliance of Philippine Women in
Canada, SIKLAB Canada (Advance and Uphold the Rights
and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers)

[Vancouver]
Philippine Women Centre of B.C., SIKLAB Vancouver
(Advance and Uphold the Rights and Welfare of Overseas
Filipino Workers), Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
(UKPC) - Vancouver, Filipino Nurses Support Group,

[Toronto] Philippine Women Centre of Ontario, SIKLAB
Ontario (Advance and Uphold the Rights and Welfare of
Overseas Filipino Workers), Filipino-Canadian Youth
Alliance (UKPC) - Toronto

[Ottawa] Pilipinong Migrante
sa Canada (PMSC)

[Montreal] PINAY Kabataang
Montreal,SIkLAB Montreal (Advance and Uphold the
Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers),
Philippine Women Centre of Quebec

[Winnipeg] PWC of Manitoba