Filipino-Canadian community outraged over Bello's attacks

As a network of progressive Filipino organizations in Canada that are in solidarity with the Filipino people's quest for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines, we are concerned and outraged at the attacks and vilification campaign that Walden Bello is conducting against legitimate people's organizations in the Philippines.

Apparently, Bello is not only content with his diatribe against Prof. Jose Maria Sison who has been tagged a "terrorist" by the United States because of Prof. Sison's uncompromising stand against US domination of the Philippines. Bello deliberately puts at risk the lives of many Filipinos through his red-baiting by dropping names of legitimate organizations as "communist fronts." Bello is fully aware that in doing this, he is giving excuse to the Philippine military to persecute these organizations and their allied groups. In these last two years alone, the Philippine military has killed and massacred over 100 members of trade unions, peasant associations, women organizations, youth groups and other sectoral organizations. Last November, the Philippine military massacred more than 10 peasants and workers in the picket line of Hda. Luisita. This came in the wake of the murder of Mely Carvajal in August 2004, leader of GABRIELA Party List in Laguna.

It is not surprising that Bello is now turning for support to his international network of "left" intellectuals, academics, and "civil society" groups in his tirade against the national democratic movement and Prof. Sison under the cover of "plurarism","multiplicity of perspectives and strategies against globalization" and "non-armed struggle." The Filipino people had already rejected him, his ideas and his joining forces with an alleged criminal who has an outstanding warrant of arrest for the deaths of hundreds of mass activists and community organizers at the height of the anti-communist hysteria in the 1980s.

It must be noted that during the era of the Marcos dictatorship, Bello succeeded in inserting himself in the national democratic movement and became privy to the movement's inner activities and personnel. He started building his personal image as expert on the Philippine struggle on the shoulders of the national democratic movement and in his "uncanny" way of being ahead of everyone one in ferreting out confidential and top secret documents, first, from the World Bank about its neo-liberal program in the Philippines and, later on, from the National Security Council of the United States about its plan of getting rid of the Marcos dictatorship.

Since then, Bello has been developing his "international connection" among progressive circles and waiting for the day when he can once more pounce on the people's movement like he did in 1986. At that time, Bello started to openly attack the national democratic movement blaming it for the killing of hundreds of mass activists and leaders while conveniently glossing over the criminal liabilities of his current friends who were responsible for these crimes. Even his own political party, where he is chairman emeritus, has insisted that it will use the Philippine military as armed escort against the New People's Army when campaigning in guerrilla zones, thus, ignoring the reality of civil war in that country.

Now that the Filipino people has once again regained the momentum and is moving forward the struggle against US imperialism and the local exploiting elites, Bello is now orchestrating his malicious attacks and lies against the people's movement and Prof. Sison. This is concurrent with the US direct intervention in the long-running civil war in the Philippines and the Philippine government's hardline attitude towards the peace process with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) that the Norwegian government is supporting as third party facilitator.

It is a mistake to have someone like Bello come in Vancouver to speak against war only to spread lies and disinformation about the national democratic struggle in the Philippines. During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 1997 in Vancouver, Bello was among those "civil society" groups who wanted to "critically" reform APEC and tried but failed to marginalize community-based anti-APEC coalitions whose position was to dismantle APEC. His return to Vancouver is another attempt to pre-empt a surging anti-war and anti-imperialist movement in Vancouver and derail its support for national liberation movements against imperialism and reaction.

We, therefore, urge other communities, sincere anti-war and anti-imperialist invididuals and groups to rally around the struggle of the Filipino people for national and social liberation and reject the malicious lies that Bello is trying to foist upon the international community.

March 3, 2005

BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines - Vancouver SIKLAB (Filipino Migrants Organization) - Vancouver
Filipino Nurses Support Group - Vancouver
Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance - Vancouver
Philippine Women Centre of BC - Vancouver
Philippine Solidarity Group - Toronto
Philippine Network for Justice and Peace - Toronto
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario - Toronto
Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance - Toronto
Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines - Ottawa Kabataang Montreal - Montreal
Philippine Workers Support Committee - Montreal
Centre for Philippine Concerns - Montreal
PINAY - Montreal
Manitoba Center for Philippine Concerns - Winnipeg